How does user behaviour signalled at Google affect rankings?
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Hi,
Just a quick question.
How important are the signals received by Google on a websites user behaviour?
For example: Bounce Rate, Avg Time on site, # of pages viewed, Geo of user etc
Thanks.
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Google reps have said that the data from GA isn't used for ranking, and have specifically called out bounce rate as a very noisy metric. There are several good references in this Search Engine Roundtable post at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-bounce-rate-attacks-16203.html.
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I have my own views, but I would say very important. From what I have seen a site running GA that starts getting more traffic from other sources will raise its ranking in Google.
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