Bounce Rate: A Key Google Ranking Factor?
Based on the evidence, is it safe to assume that there is some sort of relationship between search rankings and bounce rate? According to Google search representatives, the idea that collected analytics is being used as a determining factor as to how high a website rank is a technique they do not utilize. This clear and concise statement has been made countless times but has some doubting its credibility of it, especially those who are Search Engine Optimization experts, or SEO experts for short. Regardless of Google's claims made to the public, a small portion of marketers continue to ignore the remarks and believe that bounce rates of websites are some kind of ranking factor. Based on this perspective, questions are beginning to arise. What makes these SEO's believe this? And is there any hidden information that Google isn't sharing that might make them less credible?
The Allegation: Bounce Rate Is Used As A Ranking Factor Among Websites
Within the last year (specifically the third quarter of 2021), dependable and trustworthy sources have continued to impose the idea that bounce rate is a contributing factor when it comes to website rankings. The founder of MOZ (Rand Fishkin) posted a tweet in May 2020, that read "...Google uses (relative) bounce rate (or something that's pretty darn close) to rank websites."
Screenshot from Twitter, June 2022
This was fuel added to the fire of controversy around Google’s claims about not using bounce rate as a deciding factor.
An article (https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/bounce-rate) published by a website called Banklinko continued to support this theory Fishkin publicized, stating that "bounce rate may be used as a Google Ranking Factor." Their evidence behind the allegation involved citing an industry study that looked for correlations between the average bounce rate of a web page, and the likeliness of that site being on Googles first page.
As the year continued on, Semrush supported the idea of bounce rate being a determining element with an article stating that "Bounce rate is an important raking factor, and it's an important metric to be aware of your site's health." With that being said, they did not provide evidence to back their argument.
As one can observe, allegations have been (and still are) being made from multiple different sources, some even being credible, reliable people. However, the evidence is what will determine whether or not these claims are true, so let's take a look.
The Evidence Behind Bounce Rate Being A Factor
In a Google article named "How Search Works" (https://www.google.com/search/howsearchworks/how-search-works/ranking-results/), they claim to "use aggregated and anonymized interaction data to assess whether search results are relevant to queries."
Screenshot from Google search, June 2022
However, wording here was thought by some to be rather vague, leading to questions and assumptions regarding what "interaction data" really refers to. Some SEO experts believe that "interaction data" includes bounce rate, and have supported their suspicions with a number of studies.
Going back to the Banklinko web page mentioned earlier reveals a study that utilized Amazon's Alexa product to determine a users time on any given site. A discovery that was made was that the average time a random user stayed on their web page was 150 seconds, or 2.5 minutes.
Screenshot from Backlinko.com, June 2022
While this graph assists in demonstrating the average time on a given google first page result site, Brian Dean responded to a comment enquiring about a common bounce rate related question.
Screenshot from Backlinko.com, 2022
While this evidence does have some merit to it, it has flaws within it as well, the first of which being that the study on Backlinko did not involve bounce rate when analyzing the relationship between the rate and Google rankings. This in itself is somewhat counterintuitive, as without using bounce rate, there is no conclusive way to find an accurate outcome.
Rand Fishkin also ran tests that involved users clicking the 7th result of their google searches, and then looking at the 24 hour period after the action was completed to analyze the pages ranking level. Unfortunately, the results were inconclusive and deemed inaccurate to fully rely upon.
What Is The Reasoning Behind Why Google Doesn't Use Bounce Rate As A Ranking Factor?
An array of possible reasons are the answer as to why Google most likely doesn't use bounce rate as a website ranking factor, which can be compacted into 2 main points:
- Google Analytics is not a universal tool used on all websites - some function without it, some have the tool integrated within. Therefore, it wouldn't provide Google enough information to standardize all websites on the same scale.
- The bounce rate of any given site can be easily manipulated, causing artificial inflation if Google were to solely rely on that statistic. If the rate was the only determining factor as to how high websites were ranked on, owners of their domains could have random people (friends, family, etc.) click on their site, and continually click through different tabs and buttons to increase the average time spent within the page.
Our Final Conclusion
After analyzing the allegations alongside the evidence, while the results are inconclusive, it is fairly unlikely that Google uses bounce rates as the sole ranking factor. While some experiments have determined a slight correlation between bounce rate and the rankings of websites on Googles first page, it is very safe to say that bounce rate is not the sole determining factor. Moreover, even if it was one, one can assume that there would be other assisting ones, allowing for Google to have a more comprehensive system to rank domains and websites among each other.
