Do you believe CTR affects rankings
-
As you know, Google tracks CTR on keywords for your website visible through google Webmaster Tools. How much if at all do you believe this affects your rankings on the tracked keywords?
-
Experiment: I did an experiment on a new domain with only a small amount of authority. At the time, I only had a few links pointing to my domain, and the site was 1.5 months old. I was ranking #3 for the term "redding SEO" (the city that I live in.) I used social media, friends, and family from across the country for this experiment. I asked them to search for "redding seo" and click on my site.
The Results: Within 2 days, I jumped from position 3 to position 2, and I've stayed there ever since. I didn't do any other link building, or content creation on my site over the 48 hours, so the only factor that I can contribute to my rank change is CTR.
-
CTR, Bounce Rate, Time spent on a page/website, site speed etc they all add up. As Google and other Search Engines mention that they have 200+ ranking signals, these things are definitely part of those. Also, these influence your Site Score/Quality Score which might also affect how you rank in PPC. If you have a higher CTR, therefore a better site-score, Google Adwords might show you ad at #1 even though the site at #2 is paying more per click.
-
I do believe it is counting since in definitive, it's the best method that google can use to quantify interest of a result.
-
Same here: Used, but not (yet) heavily as a site specific quality metric. I suspect it is also used as a SERP quality metric: If the top results aren't getting a decent CTR then that is probably a result that needs looking at as a whole.
-
I agree with EGOL. Its too useful of a metric for them to completely ignore. However its probably not weighted very high since this is something that would be very gameable.
See: http://www.seomoz.org/article/search-ranking-factors#metrics-7 for some extra opinions on this topic.
-
My personal belief is that this counts for a lot.
Think about it.... You know that Google has this data and if NOBODY is clicking on your entry then you are wasting that space in their SERPs.
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
-
Internal pages ranking over the homepage: How to optimise to rank better at Google?
Hi, We have experienced a shift in SERP from internal pages ranking over website homepage for more than a year. Previously website homepages used to rank for the primary keyword like moz.com for "SEO". Now we can see that internal pages like moz.com/learn/seo/what-is-seo been ranking for the primary keyword "SEO". Google is picking up these "what is ABC" pages than the homepage. All our competitor sites are ranking with these internal pages which are about "what is (primary keyword)". We do have the same internal pages "what is....", but this pages is not ranking; only our homepage is ranking. Moreover we dropped more than 15 positions after this shift in SERP. How to diagnose this? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Seeing some really bad sites that ranked in my niche years ago reaching 1st page
It started after the update about 4 websites form the 1st page dropped to the 2nd and 4 of the other sites just popped back to the 1st page and the bad part is that the Da and inbound links of these sites are really bad, so my question is must we just wait this out till Google realises how bad these site are and some of them haven't been updated in years links broken i can go on and on. what these sites have is just the age of the domains, but can this really be the main focus of these results?
Algorithm Updates | | johan80 -
Does the more number of ranking pages improve the website ranking?
Hi all, Let's say there is a website with 100 pages ad 95 pages are not ranking for any keywords; but the other 5 pages including homepage are ranking for some keywords. In this scenario, the 95% non-ranking pages does impact the other 5% pages rankings? Or every page holds their credibility in ranking irrespective of other pages in website? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Google ranking impact: Returning visitor vs New visitor
Hi all, If a website's traffic increase in "New visitors"; will this impact rankings? Do the website overall traffic affect rankings? How much this is related with ranking improvement for main keywords? Just because thousands of visits increased for website, will it count as a strong ranking improvement signal? Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Domain location is a ranking factor? Back links & website?
If a website trying to rank in US and it has received many back-links from domains hosting from other countries; how it will impact website ranking? Can a website hosted in country will rank well in other country? How much the hosted location matters? Like....domain hosted in Germany but trying to rank in US?
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
How long does google take to re-ranking pages in results?
I mean when google dance, the pages in results go up and down frequency every minue, but finally your page will rank in any position in google, what is the time when you get another position in google
Algorithm Updates | | engtamous0 -
How to fix Yahoo/Bing Ranking with hurting great Google ranking
If you have a Top ranking for keyword in Google but for Bing and Yahoo you rank considerably lower how do you balance the desire to rank better in Yahoo/Bing with not wanting to damage your Google ranking? Have people found certain on page SEO tactics help one but damage the other? Does anyone else have great Google rankngs for keywords but Bing/Yahoo are mediocre to poor?
Algorithm Updates | | inhouseninja0 -
How did my Page Authority and Page Rank disappear?
I've hit a problem. A couple days ago my site's page authority was 51 and the PR was 3 and now they're 1 and 0 respectively. The developer did adjust some of the code in the site in the past couple days but that shouldn't have affected this. It was last cached by Google on the 5th. Can anyone offer some good advice? If it helps the page is www.duracard.com
Algorithm Updates | | Andrea.G0