User Signals A Factor?

[94501]

Hi,

To what degree do you think user signals like bunce rate, time on site, pages per visit are a factor in search rank?

I know Google says they don't use Google Analytics to get data (and I believe them), but I don't think they would need to use G/A to know your bounce rate and other user signals.

All things being equal, wouldn't a non-blog site with a 70% bounce rate (that doubled in the last year) have a big negative to overcome in how Google sees the quality of that site and how it then ranks its terms?

Thanks... Mike

[KeriMorgret]

Also consider the root causes for the bounce rate, and that those themselves might also be a negative factor in the algorithm.

For example: if the site has added images with large file sizes that take forever to load, users may leave because the site is slow, and Google may use site speed in the ranking algorithm for queries to that site. If a marketing department decided that all of the content was going to be in the images because that way the exact font from the company style guide could be used, then the engines would not being seeing this text content, only images, and it'd be harder to rank.

Do you have a URL you're willing to share, or any more details? We can take a look and give other input about what may be causing the high bounce rate, if you would like.

[94501]

Thanks, Peter!

[PeterM22]

In my view it does have an influence, but it's a very small influence when compared to that of high quality backlins.