Does Google use Google Analytics data in ranking your sites?

[Jimmy22]

Does anyone have any information about whether Google uses the data in Google Analytics for your websites as part of its algorithm for ranking pages? Someone I know has a site with good levels of traffic and he reckons that Google definitely uses the bounce rate to determine whether people are finding your site useful. Problem is that if the visitor hits the right page first time and then clicks on an affiliate link then that is treated as a bounce since they left the site without visiting any other pages in the same domain.

Any thoughts?

[Jack]

Interesting topic to discuss. I've read various articles on this topic and found some interesting discussion or proofs rather

One of them is here :- seomoz.org/blog/proof-google-is-using-behavioral-data-in-rankings

[Jimmy22]

Thanks for the link Jack - definitely an interesting article.

At the end of the day I suppose that Google is going to use whatever data they have to hand in sufficient quantities to be statistically valid when they decide how they are going to tinker with the algorithm.

Each time I learn a bit, I find a lot more to learn...

I am going to make sure that my affiliate links don't leave the site without tracking in Google Analytics.

[Jack]

I reckon traffic from Google SERP has some impact on website rankings. Not sure but it has a small factor in Google's ranking algorithm. What do you think?

[paul]

Interesting... I think Google Analytics collects referral data from GA to compare traffic levels between your site and the top performing relevant site from specific region for example if you have "US" listing for google and you are getting 40 to 50% traffic from UK, Google may use the data of Google analytics to compare your site from top results in UK and accordingly Google will show the results for UK users and so on for US users.

[Jack]

If you search for "Web Hosting" , "Reseller hosting" or "Dedicated Servers" in Google UK , you can find some US based websites. Do they get good traffic from UK?

[paul]

If you search for "Web Hosting" , "Reseller hosting" or "Dedicated Servers" in Google UK , you can find some US based websites. Do they get good traffic from UK?

Exactly that was my point, they might be getting good traffic as well referral backlinks from UK based sites that could be the reason they get top results in specific search. However I look forward more research on this topic.

[Jack]

Exactly that was my point, they might be getting good traffic as well referral backlinks from UK that could be the reason they get top results in specific search. However I look forward more research on this topic.

I guess Paid Google adverts also has some weightage in organic search results. Need to do more research on it because you cannot predict Google

[Ryan]

According to Google Analytics faq page -

Will sharing my data directly affect the ranking of my natural search results, ad quality score or ad placement?

Your website data will not be used to affect your natural search results, ad quality score or ad placement. Aggregate data across many customers will be used to improve our products and services.

I think is to signify that Google Analytics data won't affect your rankings directly, but it will allow them to tweak their algorithm which may affect your rankings.

[Jimmy22]

My bounce rate on one site is dropping already with the minor changes I made once I had done a bit of digging around on this topic. I read somewhere that Google is using over 200 metrics in their algorithm, so I suppose that it all adds up eventually.

The other point someone made was that if you use the conversion tracking in Google Analytics you are also telling Google about the type of site you are running and that might also be relevant since they can then gather data about the typical behaviour of visitors to ecommerce sites.

[Jack]

This one of discussion took place on Google Webmaster Chat at Q&A from the 3rd live chat, Oct. 2008 - Google Webmaster Help | Google Groups

This is one question I am concerned about :-

chrisff, palo alto, ca: Is the bounce rate and speed taken into account when ranking a page? i.e. if you see a searcher click on a result then return very quickly and choose another result, is the first page ranked lower?
JohnMu: Hi chrisff, assuming that users will be jumping out of a site like that, there's a high probability that they won't be willing to recommend it to others (or come back themselves). So yes, indirectly at least, if a site is made in a way that users run away right away, then chances are that we might not be recommending it as much as other sites that users like (and recommend to others).

I personally feel traffic from Google SERP and bounce rate does add a small factor to Website's ranking.

[paul]

Well, but Google will not disclose everything about everything....

[kendalbigson]

I've heard a lil about this earlier, but thanks for that article. Nice topic. I wish Google would be more open.

Kendal Bigson

[Daniel]

I have been using Google Analytics since the private BETA and I can honestly say that since I have used it personally, more and more users have been visiting my website. Before that I used to use simple statistics in cPanel but now I can compare them.. the ones in cPanel aren't as reliable as Google Analytics.

[Jimmy22]

A decent web stats package is essential to seriously understand how people are using your website and therefore whether your objectives are being met. Google Analytics certainly ticks most of the boxes and is free. Main grumble I have with it is when analysing keyword phrases for PPC campaigns since you don't get to see the actual keyword phrase someone used unless you add some serious filters.

[paul]

Jimmy, I hope you're aware that now you can import cost data from AdWords campaigns using GA, to get more leverage from Analytics I would suggest you to set Goals and Funnels to track your visitors and filter out most effective keywords, try out to find the relationship between the keywords you're already running in the paid campaign and the keywords that drive organic traffic. This will help you to analyze potential keywords which you may filter out to add in your paid campaign.

[Jimmy22]

Hi Paul, thanks for the reminder on this, I think that I am going to experiment with funnels and goals on a couple of my affiliate sites as this could give some useful stats (even though I will not actually see the sales conversions since these happen elsewhere).

Where I was coming from in my post was seeing the actual search term used when someone clicked on your PPC ad. The following articles give some useful tools for doing this (plus give a good description of the issues):

How to Get Detailed PPC Keyword Data from Google Analytics | Google Analytics Experts

and

Exact Keyword Tracking with ga.js: Unofficial Google Analytics Blog

I use the first approach with filters on a couple of my PPC sites. If anyone knows if GA now provides better data without doing this then please let me know.

J.

[freeflyer]

clickthroughs on google organic results definitely affect future placements, as an opinion.

Googles main aim is to deliver relevant websites to searches. If people are clicking through to one site more than others, then it stands to reason that that site is more relevant to the seach they requested. Hence, google will place that listing higher and higher over time.. it obviously is about what its about !

I'd imagine thay also use the bounce rate too, to determine if people leave immediatley after, like they would if they found a useless or irrelevant site.

[leo2010]

Is that true? ... see I was under the impression that "bounce rate" was down to someone clicking ONTO the index page of the site and then clicking off IMMEDIATELY?... so how accurate is your theory? so if a visitor lands on the index page and then clicks through to an affiliate link on the same page - is that considered a bounce?

Please clarify as my bounce rate is about 80% and in that case - the higher the better if you see what I mean. Please advise where you can.

Thanks

Leo

[freeflyer]

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.