Does Google use Google Analytics data in ranking your sites?

[leo2010]

not immediatley,. just before they visit another page of your site. In your case, a high bounce would be good providing they are clicking out into your affiliate sites, but you should be monitoring this.

PS bounce rate does not just apply to index pages, it aplplies to every page. Generally, for most sites, the lower the bounce rate the better.. a reasonable rate is between 25-40%.

As for my theory, its just a theory, it cant be proved, ever... same goes for most Search Engine Optimization experimentation.

So if they are clicking on the affiliate links... could a high bounce rate considered to be a positive thing?... or is one way to tell if it is positive to see what the output is in terms of sales or conversions?

Thanks for your reply

[freeflyer]

in all honesty its something i've not thought about before, but a bounce rate triggercould just be in and out of the site the same way, it may not apply to clicking through onto affiliate sites.

you'll need to check your stats.. get your affiliate visit figures and check against your site visitor count. Although to be honest i'd be suprised if you were getting an 80% clickthrough rate to your affiliates.. more than likely this is a true 80% bounce rate.. ie a lost visit with no clickthrough.