Comments on: Why Google Measures Bounce Rate By Keyword Phrase

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 19:02:35 +0000

@Raymond Galis – Thanks for the comment. Great observation, yeah I have always seen very high bounce rates from Facebook and Twitter visitors for our site and client sites as well…

By: Raymond Galis

Raymond Galis — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:37:13 +0000

I run over 100 Google campaigns a year, and the bounce rates are pretty much consistent, the one thing I did notice is that leads from FACEBOOK bounce rates seem to be double every other website.

Has anyone else noticed this?

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 14:02:32 +0000

@Cary Bradley – Thanks for providing the link to the Google Analytics FAQ…I agree with you I have seen and heard many cases of this but have actually not experienced this myself at all (not using GA increases positioning…)

It would be great if other people could comment on any type of situations they have experienced. Thanks!

By: Cary Bradley

Cary Bradley — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 13:50:26 +0000

This is an interesting theory. Google, in their Analytics FAQ, insists that "Your website data will not be used to affect your natural search results, ad quality score or ad placement. Aggregate data across many customers will be used to improve our products and services." Yet I see anecdotal reports from people who claim that implementing Google Analytics has harmed their rankings, and even that cancelling their GA account increased their rankings. This doesn't make sense to me. Why would Google penalize sites based on GA data, which would favor sites that don't use GA at all? Does the decision to measure your site's performance put you at risk of lowering your rankings because your site doesn't already perform well (based on bounce data)? Could it simply be that the poor user experience reflected in bounce rates is already detected and factored in by the Google algorithm, irrespective of any Analytics data? I don't know the answers, but would certainly like to hear others' opinions and experiences, as this is certainly an important issue, if true.

By: Should You Change Your SEO Strategy For Bing?

Should You Change Your SEO Strategy For Bing? — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:09:44 +0000

[...] coupled with a lower bounce rate can affect your SEO rankings. We’ve discussed that before here and [...]

By: Nick Stamoulis

Nick Stamoulis — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 18:11:39 +0000

@Val Nelson – Thanks for reading and your comment!

You are right it makes perfect sense for Google to measure bounce rate since at the end of the day it is about user/visitor experience…

By: Val Nelson

Val Nelson — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 17:12:36 +0000

I think Google has been including bounce rate in its search results criteria for years. I worked on a website case a few years ago in which bounce rate was likely a factor in a sudden drop in ranks and then again a factor when it returned to higher ranks. It wasn’t a 1-to-1 connection but it was suspicious enough to convince me it was a big factor.

And why wouldn’t it be a factor? Google is all about going by what users do, so why not consider bounce rate? People don’t seem to realize that Google is a type of social media. User feedback is a major factor.

This bounce rate idea has major ramifications. For instance, I hear people say that ads on a website don’t effect search results, BUT if people leave your site too quickly because all they see are annoying ads, it’s going to effect your rank.

Thank you.