Google User Click Data and Metrics
-
Assuming that Google is using click data from users to calculate rankings (bounce rate, time on site, task completion, etc.) where does Google get the data, especially from browsers that aren't Chrome?
-
This was example with GA. I believe that they use dwell time and next or subsequent searches for this.
Because they can't fight against shopping cart abandonment's and other issues. So they have some as benchmark against other sites. If your metrics are above average in your industry then it's great. If your metrics are weak - you're in trouble. You can see benchmarking in Google Analytics. So whatever you do just try to make better metrics than them. Example - i just have seen that some of mine sites have pages/session 1.40 vs 2.99 in benchmark. Also mine session duration is 1:32 vs. 2:19 in benchmark.
Similar metrics are in PPC too - you need to be above the average for better positions, prices and conversions.
I know that all this explanation can sound little bit messy... but this is question all SEO specialists think about these days. If you know the answers you can become millionaire and retire quick.
-
But how does Google measure form completions or purchases for rankings?
Again, I'm not talking about Google analytics. We use it heavily for our ecommerce sites. I know how the UA tracking code works. Google claims that they don't use GA data for rankings, and I would tend to believe them.
-
That's tricky. There are lot of theories about Analytics, Chrome, AI, RNN, etc. Of course there also lot of speculations too!
BUT here Josh Bachynski explain that task completion is correlated with with user metrics - time on session, bounce rate and average pages per session. Also others - please note subsequent search in mine prev answer. So in theory sites with better time, less bounce are considered as high quality. You can check also other videos from Josh in YouTube where he explain this many times.
One of easiest way to track task completion is to add goals in Analytics and/or add events tracking too. Goals can be different - contact form filled, lead form filled, software download, whitepaper request, signup form, playing video, etc. Events can be - comments viewed, gallery viewed, video stopped, etc.Then you can see how many of your visitors do tasks and how many do events. This will be for your own insurance that they're inside of page and do something there.
Trick is that Google will use only SERP visitors and their metrics. I can have site with 20k visitors daily from Facebook/Twitter and only 200 from Google SERP. I don't saying that 20k visitors can be wrong, but they will be almost useless for clicking test. Things will be different if we have 20k daily from SERP and 200 from Facebook/Twitter.
So - whatever you do just when you receive SERP traffic keep it in site. This is higher priority for better ranking.
-
Thanks for the answer. Spot on.
There's been a lot of speculation on "task completion" and how it relates to ranking. If completing a task is a purchase on an ecommerce site, how is Google measuring it? Is it only through Chrome or by some other means?
how does Google measure when someone completes a form?
is that possible, or is Google just checking to make sure that the cart and the form work correctly? Was that the point of the "Zombie" update?
-
If you remember before 5 years ago all urls was unencrypted in SERP and lot of tools using this for capturing "keywords" and linking them to pages. After they introduce this in 2010 they begin rollout in few years and today only way to see keywords is in SearchConsole. Of course encryption is for "to improve your search quality and to provide better service". Original text can be seen here. Please note "provide better service" there. This is tricky!
So imagine that you search for moz and here is actual URL i can see now:
https://www.google.bg/search?q=moz&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&gws_rd=cr&ei=4wNVVpnZBYGoUZiXh4AG
you can definitely see keyword there in ?q=moz now first result is Moz.com and it's URL is:
https://www.google.bg/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjenMnUq6rJAhXIRBQKHXuVCcUQFggfMAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmoz.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNHNW83KUfvLcZOMILlYW49NobxUig&sig2=nOVvQ05KIPrGB3XFAFmIGgAs you can clearly see - there isn't keyword anymore but everything comes with encrypted data (ved, usg, sig2). This link /url is actual redirector that count your click on specific result and position.Now if i click on 1st result and go in Moz.com i can scroll down and i find "this isn't MOZ i'm looking for" so within some time (few seconds) i will return to SERP. This is actual "dwell time" and bounce back to SERP. It's negative signal because it's show to Google that result he return for first place isn't correct with human verification. Now back on same SERP i can see Moz in Wikipedia:
https://www.google.bg/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=19&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjenMnUq6rJAhXIRBQKHXuVCcUQFghhMBI&url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FMoz_(marketing_software)&usg=AFQjCNGCgqmsKNIdaZdGrbugf8bJk6NhTg&sig2=jS-vt68NFtD5YhgSV4lTGwIf i click this and i doesn't have return to SERP anymore this give to Google enough to calculate bounce rate for this site (only to return in SERP) so give Wikipedia some "goal completition". And time for next search can be used to calculated "time on site".And since all searches are encrypted they knows when specific user search for something and when they make new search based on already returned data. Example is "Napoleon". This can be anything - french emperor, movie, cake, drink and other things. So now i can do subsequent search "Napoleon height". This is example how one search can give me enough information to do another refined search. Other good example can be "32 us president". Then i can type "franklin d roosevelt height".
This was explained much better in closing MozCon 2015 presentation "SEO in a Two Algorithm World ":
http://www.slideshare.net/randfish/onsite-seo-in-2015-an-elegant-weapon-for-a-more-civilized-marketer
and you should see it. There also shown few tests inside with terrific results. -
I guess I should have phrased the question a little differently. This is not related to Google Analytics.
When I do a Google search, Google is able to track my actions, and is probably using the data as a ranking factor. Josh Bachynski did a Whiteboard Friday on it.
https://moz.com/blog/panda-41-google-leaked-dos-and-donts-whiteboard-friday
How is Google able to track user actions after they click on a SERP listing? Where are they getting their data?
-
Here is a good explanation.
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
-
Is my content being fully read by Google?
Hi mozzers, I wanted to ask you a quick question regarding Google's crawlability of webpages. We just launched a series of content pieces but I believe there's an issue.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TyEl
Based on what I am seeing when I inspect the URL it looks like Google is only able to see a few titles and internal links. For instance, when I inspect one of the URLs on GSC this is the screenshot I am seeing: image.pngWhen I perform the "cache:" I barely see any content**:** image.pngVS one of our blog post image.png Would you agree with me there's a problem here? Is this related to the heavy use of JS? If so somehow I wasn't able to detect this on any of the crawling tools? Thanks!0 -
No images in Google index
No images are indexed on this site (client of ours): http://www.rubbermagazijn.nl/. We've tried everything (descriptive alt texts, image sitemaps, fetch&render, check robots) but a site:www.rubbermagazijn.nl shows 0 image results and the sitemap report in Search Console shows 0 images indexed. We're not sure how to proceed from here. Is there anyone with an idea what the problem could be?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Adriaan.Multiply0 -
Removing Parameterized URLs from Google Index
We have duplicate eCommerce websites, and we are in the process of implementing cross-domain canonicals. (We can't 301 - both sites are major brands). So far, this is working well - rankings are improving dramatically in most cases. However, what we are seeing in some cases is that Google has indexed a parameterized page for the site being canonicaled (this is the site that is getting the canonical tag - the "from" page). When this happens, both sites are being ranked, and the parameterized page appears to be blocking the canonical. The question is, how do I remove canonicaled pages from Google's index? If Google doesn't crawl the page in question, it never sees the canonical tag, and we still have duplicate content. Example: A. www.domain2.com/productname.cfm%3FclickSource%3DXSELL_PR is ranked at #35, and B. www.domain1.com/productname.cfm is ranked at #12. (yes, I know that upper case is bad. We fixed that too.) Page A has the canonical tag, but page B's rank didn't improve. I know that there are no guarantees that it will improve, but I am seeing a pattern. Page A appears to be preventing Google from passing link juice via canonical. If Google doesn't crawl Page A, it can't see the rel=canonical tag. We likely have thousands of pages like this. Any ideas? Does it make sense to block the "clicksource" parameter in GWT? That kind of scares me.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | AMHC0 -
Why is my site not getting crawled by google?
Hi Moz Community, I have an escort directory website that is built out of ajax. We basically followed all the recommendations like implementing the escaped fragment code so Google would be able to see the content. Problem is whenever I submit my sitemap on Google webmastertool it always 700 had been submitted and only 12 static pages had been indexed. I did the site query and only a number of pages where indexed. Does it have anything to do with my site being on HTTPS and not on HTTP? My site is under HTTPS and all my content is ajax based. Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | en-gageinc0 -
Stuck at position 23 - Google Sandbox?
Hello, We have an exact match domain, that for it's exact match term is stuck at position 23. We launched around June 20 I'm talking about only the exact match term On the home page, we have yet to put keyword into the content, h1, or meta description, although they do occur in fragments in the meta description. The keyword is in the title This is not a very competitive industry For other sites that I built a couple of years ago, exact match domains (for their exact match term) would get on the first page after the sandbox was complete (4-6 months) for non-competitive industries even without backlinks. Are we experiencing a sandbox? How long? What information do you need? Thank you.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Google plus
"Google+ members, and to a lesser extent others who are signed into Google, will be able to search against both the broader web and their own Google+ social graph. That’s right; Google+ circles, photos, posts and more will be integrated into search in ways other social platforms can only dream about." What is meant by " and to a lesser extent others who are signed into Google" ? Does it mean that non-google plus members won't be able to view Google+photos, posts ?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | seoug_20050 -
Google Places Alternatives
Hello, I have been looking into Google places alternatives. Any suggestions? On a related note. I am based in the UK and looking to add a UK business to Bing Local but having read this thread ( - http://www.bing.com/community/maps/f/12264/t/653672.aspx -) I don't think it's possible. Anyone had any luck or experience? Cheers dj
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | JohnW-UK0 -
Is there any delay between crawling a page by google and displaying of the ratings in rich snippet of the results in google?
Is there any delay between crawling a page by google and displaying of the ratings in rich snippet of the results in google?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | NEWCRAFT0