Is Bounce Rate a Google search ranking factor? Do you want to decrease the Bounce Rate for Google search ranking? Can Bounce Rate influence rankings?
Even though Google never claimed that the bounce rate could impact ranking, SEO experts believe otherwise. It could be because Google needed to share everything about the ranking factors clearly.
Web admins and SEO experts are eagerly optimizing their websites to decrease bounce rates. Some experts believe that bounce date directly impacts ranking, whereas others think it is an indirect Google ranking factor.
But does website bounce rate impact your Google search position? Let's find out.
Let's understand everything about Bounce Rate and its impact on search.
Bounce Rate:
Bounce rate is the number or percentage of website visitors that move away from the webpage without any engagement. Users can interact with the page by purchasing, sharing, commenting, and filling in the form.
In the Google Analytics report, the bounce rate is the result of single-page sessions divided by the total number of sessions.
To fix bounce rates, web admins use strategies like exit popups, social sharing widgets, etc.
Claim: Bounce Rate is a Google Ranking Factor
SEO experts and professional SEO tools have published reports that claim that bounce rate is one of the many factors that impact search engine ranking.
Rand Fishkin, Brain Dean, SEMRush, HubSpot, etc., have published articles and social media posts where they claimed bounce rate as an impactful factor.
Bounce rate impacts site-level user interaction. The believers in bounce rate came up with the solution of using skyscrapers and pillar articles. They have published lengthy articles with every piece of content that user wants to read about the topic.
The reason behind this is to give maximum information and make the user stay on the website for a long time. This strategy helped SEOs earn backlinks and traffic, but does it impact search ranking?
Let's find out.
Evidence: Bounce Rate Is a Google Search Ranking Factor
In the Google Analytics report, you see the bounce rate metric that tells the percentage of sessions that end without a secondary session.
While some users believe that it displays the user's interest in the information, Google has clearly stated that the Bounce rate has nothing to do with the search engine ranking.
Bounce rate also cannot be the ranking factor because it does not measure user satisfaction.
For example, if a user spends 2 minutes on your website and then leaves without making a secondary hit, then Analytics will still display his visit as a bounce rate.
The bounce rate is not an indicator of user satisfaction.
Google claimed that Bounce Rate is not a Ranking Factor:
In 2022, John Muller said that there are a lot of things that need to be clarified among SEOs about bounce rate. It is not a ranking factor.
In 2010, Matt Cutts also said that bounce rate is not part of ranking signals.
Why does Google not count the bounce rate as a Google search ranking factor?
Here are the reasons:
- The bounce rate only measures single sessions.
- It never provides user satisfaction data.
- It is easy to manipulate the bounce rate.
- Google Analytics is not available on every website.
Conclusion: Bounce Rate is not a Google Search Ranking Factor
Bounce rate is not a Google search ranking factor. The reason is that it does not measure user satisfaction, which is Google's top priority.
Brian Dean and Rand Fishkin already explained and tested that bounce is a ranking factor, and it is easy for any SEO expert to confuse it with user satisfaction.
No evidence proves that that once is a Google ranking signal.
It is best to focus more on user satisfaction than bounce rate. In a world where short videos are taking over, the focus time is decreasing. It is best to provide an answer before telling the story.
Invest your time and money on confirmed Google ranking factors.
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