Does Search Volume Directly Effect Organic Search Result Rankings?
-
For example, if 20,000 people searched for "seomoz toasters," do you think a page on seomoz.org that mentioned toasters would begin to rank well for the query "toasters"?
-
Not just search volume mind you. Do you think mentions on sites around the web have an impact as well?
-
Yes. That's what I believe.
-
Do you think volume of brand / domain mentions and co-occurrence influence organic rankings as well?
-
Your premise sounds good in a perfect world.
There is a featured post by Rand that asks how to manipulate Google search suggestions.
I believe these same tactics could be used to skew organic results as well. Some tactics suggested were...
Mechanical Turk
Offline Advertising
Online Advertising
For example, if semoz.org had 20,000 Turkers a month search for Seomoz Toasters, The legitimate toaster site may not stand a chance because CTR and bounce rates have been manipulated.
-
Let's say the top page for seomoz toasters is a site on seomoz.org that happens to talk about toasters (say a youmoz). It's got the right keywords and it's on a popular site. But Rand Fishkin has started a Cafepress store that sells seomoz toasters. Being a busy guy, he mentions this on his blog but forgets to link to it. So people turn to Google. People get served seomoz.org as #1. Google doesn't read Rand's blog (like you or I do) so it links to seomoz.org. But you and I, we want that toaster, not some guy talking about link building for toasters on seomoz. So either you will click into seomoz and bounce out, or just click #2, the Cafepress store. And 80% of the people who click into Cafepress never come back. That tells Google that people are finding what they're looking for at #2 and, by the power of Matt Cutts, Cafepress becomes #1 for "seomoz toasters", based on the traffic patterns Google observed.
In a shorter term, this is called "bounce rate".
So to get back to your question, volume tends to make Google notice term traffic trends (like bounce rate) faster. I don't know that this applies to other terms. "seomoz toasters" is a fairly specific term (it's not terribly common), while "toasters" are highly general. You could have people who want the seomoz toaster so badly that they search "toaster" and click to the seomoz site in that result, but that's really unnatural. Most would just search the long tail.
-
I am saying what I believe based upon observation.... and not something that I have proven by testing.
I believe that brand mentions and domain queries are awesome powerful.
I had a site that was getting a few thousand queries per month that included the domain. That site was redirected to a better domain and rankings dropped for those queries that used to include the domain.
However, visitors learned the new domain and within a few months a few thousand queries that included the domain were coming in.... and rankings went back to normal.
This isn't "proof" but enough to make me think that domain queries are awesome.
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
-
Huge difference between GSC ranking and browser ranking for certain keywords: How to proceed?
Hi, There is a huge ranking difference between the GSC and browser for our primary keyword. As per GSC, our ranking is around 15 and when checking on the multiple different incognito browsers it's around 50. How to handle this? Which is the accurate one? Product expert from Google forums claim that what I see on browsers are the personalized results; but I tried on different browsers with different connections. Thanks
Algorithm Updates | | vtmoz0 -
Google search analytics position - how is it worked out
In our Google search analytic s graphs total clicks and impressions appear as a sold line on the graph(ie showing a result for each day) Position only shows as an occasional dot or line - not a continuous result for each day) sometimes there are days with no result for position. How do google get these results
Algorithm Updates | | CostumeD0 -
Falling Ranking
Hello until recently I was ranking quite well for a certain keyword and now week by week I am dropping in ranking. How do I fix this or find out how my competitors are getting higher than me Thanks Linda
Algorithm Updates | | invitationsforless0 -
Ranking Well in Google But Not Bing - Why?
Hello Moz Community, I'm ranking well in Google (#2-#6 for various keywords) but on the second page of Bing. Are there certain differences that I should be aware of? Thanks, Cole
Algorithm Updates | | ColeLusby0 -
Are localised results affecting search query volumes?
As the questions says. I've had some conversations with colleagues of mine and they definitely feel that search query volumes are being heavily affected by localised results - and even more so recently. So, for instance, you may have a Google UK rank of 3 for a keyword yet be hardly visible in other parts of the UK because of the localised-based results. Thoughts?
Algorithm Updates | | Webrevolve0 -
Google Search CTR % By Position
Hello I am looking for an updated report regarding the CTR % by position for Google search results. I have the compete.com report which Gives the 1st organic position a 53% CTR but I have not be able to duplicate that number with any other report or research. I am just trying to validate this report before I suggest any recommendations to my company regarding our search efforts. Thank you Ben
Algorithm Updates | | bhalverson30 -
Sharp Drop in SERP Ranking for Specific Keyword
I'm sure this happens to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. My pages http://www.cleanedison.com/leed and http://www.cleanedison.com/courses/leed-green-associate suddenly dropped off the map over the past 2 weeks for the keyword "LEED Certification" I tried to limit the number of times "LEED" was mentioned on the first URL (/leed) to try to combat an over-optimization penalty but I did not for the second (/leed-green-associate). Both of them have fallen precipitously and are no where to be found on Google. What can I do to troubleshoot this? Is there anyway to guard against this in the future?
Algorithm Updates | | CleanEdisonInc0 -
Why is my domain URL ranking instead of individual pages?
Hello, Google is ranking my homepage for many keywords instead of showing the various sites pages? Any idea why? Thanks, David
Algorithm Updates | | DavidSpivac0