Does bounce rate affect my websites rankings?

TommyCarey Level X³

1

June 16, 2016, 2:42 pm

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Does bounce rate affect my websites rankings?

Let me get this Google tweet out of the way first. Gary Illyes from Google tweeted this back in 2015: "we don't use analytics/bounce rate in search ranking." And Matt Cutts, the main man for Googles search algorithm, said something along the same lines. So that's pretty clear, right?

I'm not saying that the bounce rate of a website isn't a direct ranking factor. Also, Google definitely does not need analytics to show how long a user has been on a website. What I do believe is that in some indirect way, bounce rate is a factor when it comes to your rankings.

I'm not saying that a high bounce rate won't be the main thing to kick you from the first page. I just feel that it's one in a sea of factors that help or hurt your rankings.

Now click through rates can be altered and gamed pretty easily. If I put up an ad that said "You get a free cookie by clicking here" you bet I'll be getting a lot of people clicking through to see if they actually get a free cookie. But when they get to the page and there's no cookie, they're going to leave. And this will increase your bounce rate.

So I believe that Google does track your time on site just to make sure your links are genuine and aren't just click bait.

Another question I see a lot is when people ask "Will higher rankings increase my conversion rates?" Well, it's extremely difficult to figure that out exactly. You could be on page one rank one and get 100 views and 10 sales while your competitor is on page 2 rank 10 and getting 10 views and 1 sale. The conversions are the same, there's just less sales on page 2 obviously.

So in the end, try to get your users to stay on site and click through a couple pages. Make your pages user friendly and easy to navigate. I say this because a good bounce rate and time on site can be a small factor in your rankings in the search engines



Thanks,

Razzy

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ajlancer

Hi Razzy thanks for point out nice issues as bounce rate will affect on search engine or not? I completely agree with your last sentence as good 'bounce rate and time on site can be a small factor in your rankings in the search engines' Search ranking it is different issue and I think it is depend on smart SEO. And getting good search rank or getting search engine first page term has changed by Google and at the same time SEO technique also changed. And getting first page Google very much insist on excellent content and not on traffic or bounce rate. Yes it may work few behind as good impression or on CTR. But I personally believe good bounce rate will not affect to get website ranking on search engine.

Thanks by Ajlancer

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MasterA

I agree with Razzy. Something you may want to consider is what information does bounce rate tell you. Bounce rate tells you that users are leaving nearly immediately after visiting your website and Google will not want these websites on the top pages of Google. Why? Well, Google wants to gives its users the best user experience and high bounce rate implies a very bad user experience. That may not be the case, for example the high bounce rate may be caused by fake traffic but Google can’t tell whether they are fake or real traffic so Google will assume that the web page has a poor user experience and hence it will hurt your rankings.

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vinaya

I always had this thought that high bounce rate has a negative effect on your ranking. High bounce rate means the visitors did not interact on your page. If the visitor does not interact, it might be because the content is not good, the user interface is not good, the site loaded slowly etc. Google cares about the value of content, user experience and site loading speed for ranking.

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Corzhens

That’s also my take on the bounce rate. If the user stays on one page for a long time, it can mean 2 things, i.e. positive or negative. And when the user is dynamic in roaming around the website by clicking on pages from time to time, it will also mean 2 things that I have mentioned above. In other words, the bounce rate does not affect much the search engine algorithm because it is not a factor. That’s how I see it. No offense meant to the creator of this discussion.

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vinaya

Google cares about your website content, website design, website loading speed, user interface, backlinks, social signals and user experience. The high ranking of the website means, your website meets all the requirements of Google. Since Google cares about user interface and user experience, it also cares about bounce rate. The high bounce rate implies that visitor did not like the website. If the visitor did not like the website the reasons might be user interface, user experience etc.

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