Of late there has been a lot of discussion about bounce rates
and whether or not the search engines count these in their
algorithms. As far back as late 2007, there were reports that
webmasters were seeing a difference in their rankings for major
keywords within a few weeks of drastically changing their bounce
rates. However, none of the tests and reports seem to be
complete enough or repeatable enough to constitute proof.
As a result, there are plenty of naysayers who believe that
such things as bounce rates are not now and probably never will
be part of the search engine algorithms. I am of the opposite view; bounce rates will certainly be part
of the search engine algorithms and probably already are. What I would like to do here is share with you some of the
common naysayer objections and refute all but one of them.
But first, for those who are scratching their heads about what
bounce means, we are referring to people leaving a website. A
bouncy website is the opposite of a sticky website, one where
people stay a long time. Objection 1: There is no definition of "bounce rate". Response: This is the flimsiest of arguments. A bounce is when
someone leaves a website, going back where they came from. Objection 2: I don't like how Google Analytics defines a bounce. Response: Sadly, Google doesn't ask me for advice, either. But
cheer up, the bounce rate in Google Analytics might not be the
same as they use in their algorithm, just as the little green
bar is not necessarily the PageRank they use in their algorithm. Objection 3: Many sites don't have Google Analytics turned on,
so Google would have very incomplete data. Response (scratching my head in confusion): What does Google
Analytics have to do with anything? This is about Google (or
Yahoo, or MSN, or Ask, or some other) tracking their own traffic
and how their own users move about and - most importantly - how
their users return to their website. Objection 4: What is the threshold for a bounce? After 5
seconds? After 10 second? After 15 seconds? This is a mess!
(This is often part of the how-do-we-define-a-bounce debate.)
Response: A bounce is a bounce, whether it takes a person one
second or one hour to bounce back, it is a bounce. How the
search engines choose to treat bounces with varying lag times
is another matter. Let's be clear; they won't tell you, just as
they won't tell you how many links on a page they index, how
many they follow and how many they count in their ranking
algorithms. Furthermore, it is a moving target. Just like every
other algorithm input, bounce rates and bounce lag times will
not be treated in the exact same way one day to the next. Objection 5: What if people quickly click on an external link
and leave my site? They found the site useful because they found
a useful link on it, but they bounced. Response: That is not a bounce, that's a referral. A bounce is
when someone hits the back button. Objection 6: What if the user quickly closes the window? Response: That could be any number of things, but it is not a
bounce. Who can guess how the search engines might treat that,
or even if they treat it at all. However, it need not be
considered a bounce unless the search engines believe it should
be.
| It is of course not full article. You should login first to show full article. If you have not account, please register. It is FREE!!! |
David Leonhardt is a professional SEO consultant
(http://www.seo-writer.com) who never shies away from fearless
predictions. David is the author of the Sticky SEO book
(http://www.seo-writer.com/books/sticky-seo.html) that advises
on how to optimize websites for algorithms that include user
actions, such as bounces.
|
