Is user engagement a ranking signal?
-
Read something about user engagement might be a signal that Google uses, along with links and on-site optimisation, to decide if a search result goes up or down. What should I believe and what are the developments in this field?
-
Wow, 10 years ago EGOL! Must have been tough taking that approach back then when black-hat methods still worked pretty well. You were always in it for the long term I'm guessing.
-
I bet all of my money on visitor engagement years ago. I don't think anybody believed me then, lots don't believe me now. I have not done any real site promotion for a long time.
-
User engagement is a signal for mobile but not desktop-http://searchengineland.com/google-user-experience-as-a-ranking-signal-is-currently-only-for-mobile-results-not-desktop-results-220719
Even if it isn't now, I could see it be a ranking factor in the future.
-
From my experience I say user engagement does play a role. I have a page on my site that was never really optimized and doesn't have high page authority, but the user engagement is great. I get regular traffic to that page through quality keywords. If only I could get all my pages to perform like that. At the end of the day, I think focusing on engagement in addition to links & on-site optimization is worth the additional effort.
-
Thanks for your clear explanation and suggestions!
-
Hi there
One of the best pieces I have seen on this are from Rand's The Massive Ranking Factor Too Many SEOs are Ignoring Whiteboard Friday. It dives into a few indirect tactics and also helps walk your mind through how you can showcase your efforts.
The best advice I ever got was to experiment with ideas or hypothesis on what you think may move the needle - whether on your site or starting a new one just for the sake of experimenting. The beauty about SEO and digital marketing right now is that no one has it "nailed down". There are so many opportunities that there is no right way of doing anything yet.
I will say that you should always mind your annotations in Google Analytics - that way when you make a change you can see what changes had the most impact over time.
You asked...
"They speak of 'indirect but measurable', but does this signal continues to increase or will it remain as it is. I am anxious whether user engagement as ranking factor is further decisive or not?"
No one knows yet, I can only imagine (again, assuming) that usability and user experience will increase as a ranking factor over time as so many KPIs and quality signals can run through those two items, and there are so many different angles you can look at it.
The best thing you can do right now is provide a stellar user experience, engage your audience, empower your team to be thought leaders, and embrace change as it happens in the digital marketing world.
Hope this helps a bit! Good luck!
-
Hi Alick300,
Thanks for your quick reply. They speak of 'indirect but measurable', but does this signal continues to increase or will it remain as it is. I am anxious whether user ungagement as ranking factor is further decisive or not?
-
Hi,
Google never reveal that but yes it is a ranking signal. I'm quoting from Moz
"Usability and user experience are second order influences on search engine ranking success. They provide an indirect but measurable benefit to a site's external popularity, which the engines can then interpret as a signal of higher quality. This is called the "no one likes to link to a crummy site" phenomenon."
You can read full post here @ https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/how-usability-experience-and-content-affect-search-engine-rankings
Hope this helps.
Thanks
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Huge ranking flux that we cannot explain
Hello, SEO experts from around the world. We need your help; we have seen massive ranking flux across our website and others. We cannot explain what is causing this ranking flux. The content marketing is top quality, so we don’t know why we are moving from 25 to 50th on Google and sometimes even beyond that. Can any SEO experts explain why our agency is moving so much within Google’s rankings? We don’t know whether to make changes or possibly wait. Any help would be fantastic; thank you all.
Algorithm Updates | | sarahwalsh0 -
Did any one else notice rankings drops since 14th-21st Feb this year?
Hi everyone, I'm looking for some guidance please. Our website saw a drop in rankings on around 14th - 21st Feb 2019 and the rankings haven't really recovered. I can't see anything significant in Search Console, there was a possible unconfirmed algorithm update during early Feb but I can't really find anything factual to determine if this was the cause. The ranking drop seems to be across different keywords. What else should I check? Did anyone experience such a drop around this time and if so found out why this happened and how to recover? Thanks for your help 🙂 Caroline
Algorithm Updates | | Teepee_Digital0 -
Falling Ranking
Hello until recently I was ranking quite well for a certain keyword and now week by week I am dropping in ranking. How do I fix this or find out how my competitors are getting higher than me Thanks Linda
Algorithm Updates | | invitationsforless0 -
How to Interpret Rankings Decline
My website operates in 14 languages, and overall we have not seen a decrease in traffic (hard to measure because we are very vulnerable to external factors) I started using AWR about a month ago and in that time have seen the following changes in my visibility for some of my major markets: Nothing major in either direction, but any advice of how to delve deeper to find an explanation for the markets that are decreasing? UK: 15% ->13% RU: 25 -> 26% AU: 25% -> 21% DE: 18% - 19% ES: 11% -> 10% SE: 42% -> 44%
Algorithm Updates | | theLotter0 -
Rankings fluctuating by around 10 pages between night and day
Hi all, I'm experiencing something very odd with my website ranking at the moment. My homepage is fluctuating in rank for my main keyword by 10 pages every day and night. So, during the day i am on page 14, 15 or 16 for my main keyword yet by night i am on page 5 or 6. This trend has continued for the past 7 days now and i can't quite understand why this is. I'm using pagewash dot net to carry out manual searches and a ranking tool - both of which produce exactly the same result. Does anyone have any experience of this or why this is happening? My domain is around 8 years old and has around 50,000 pages. Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Algorithm Updates | | MarkHincks0 -
Intermittent ranking drops.. up and down and once again..
So.. For the last several weeks (I noticed March 11th), we are having some weird ranking drops. Our keywords will drop overnight from their usual position between 2-6 to further than 200 and then be back to normal a couple days later. We use Sheerseo to track daily ranking. I track about 15 KW everyday and noticed it happening then. Is this part of the recent changes? I am just really puzzled that we are seeing drops and then going back to normal and then drops again. It is hard to know where you stand with such drastic differences day to day. Any ideas?
Algorithm Updates | | CassisGroup0 -
Is it still possible for small businesses to rank well in google
Hi I've been playing around with ecommerce sites for a few years now and although I am no expert I'm not a complete novice. We used to do quite well in google but recent changes have halved our number of hits. I have noticed that over the last year google has given priority to large brand names as opposed to relevancy. For example, if you search for the term 'bridal jewellery' (google UK) you will see that apart from one or two the majority of placements are taken by big compnies who offer very little bridal jewellery. One or two pages at most. My question is, is it still possible to rank well against these brand names or has google made it impossible for small companies. PS we only practice ethical seo as suggested by seomoz. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. Thanks www.kerryblu.co.uk
Algorithm Updates | | Dill0 -
Google Page Rank?
We have had a quality website for 12 years now, and it seems no matter how many more links we get and how much new content we add daily, we have stayed at PR3 for the past 10 years or so. Our SEOMoz domain authority is 52. We have over 950,000 pages linking to us from 829 unique root domains. Is this in line with PR3 or should we be approaching PR4 soon? We do daily blog posts with all unique, fresh quality content that has not been published elsewhere. We try to do everything with 'white hat' methods, and we are constantly trying to provide genuine content and high quality products, and customer service. How can we improve our PR and how important is PR today?
Algorithm Updates | | applesofgold0