Yes, Google is watching user behavior...

[ThopHayt]

I remember posting in a thread just yesterday on this, but Google seems to have just admitted flat out that they track things like back-clicks and user time-on-site.

https://www.seroundtable.com/google-brain-click-data-for-rankings-24441.html

Sounds to me like they watch user behavior (probably on platforms like Chrome where it is hard/impossible to fake user interactions) and them feed that data into the AI in order to draw correlations between user behavior and other data points.

This would seem to strengthen my opinion that Google takes data like this and compares it across various sites/niches/keywords to see what is "normal" and what is "good" for various situations. Meaning, the expected time-on-site for a keyword like "mcdonalds 90234 store hours" may be different than "mcdonalds now hiring."

Nevertheless the big headline here is "yes, Google is watching visitor data!"

-ThopHayt

 

[aidenhera]

old news. it wasnt stated official but a lot of people here were already masterizing user experience signals as much as they can.

its smart move on their side because now you dont only need onpage+offpage but also you need to keep visitors on your site and feed the AI-UX algo properly. in other words you need to perform better than current top 1 in all these 3 fields.

 

[ThopHayt]

its smart move on their side because now you dont only need onpage+offpage but also you need to keep visitors on your site and feed the AI-UX algo properly.

Exactly, they want you to both walk like a duck and quack like a duck in order to be considered a duck... but I wouldn't go quite as far as to say it is impossible to game this.

-ThopHayt

 

[randybishop]

More proof that site quality trumps everything in 2017.

 

[ThopHayt]

At a certain point, with regards to site-quality, it is just easier to meet Google half-way than to try to continue using spam. That point probably depends on your niche and goals, but for me that point came a long time ago. This is just more confirmation that the noose is getting tighter for bad content and user experiences.

-ThopHayt

 

[moonshine7000]

I'm not surprized about this that is why I don't use chrome.

 

[MisterF]

More proof that site quality trumps everything in 2017.

Yup, content will be one factor to keep people on a page, so up your game and use great content.

 

[Nut-Nights]

I stopped trusting seoroundtable long time ago.

 

[aidenhera]

I stopped trusting seoroundtable long time ago.

yeah sometimes they post dumb thing and i dont read them but ux is real

 

[Wilson Grant Fisk]

@bartosimpsonio has been warning everybody for years. I basically agree with him, I believe every interaction with Goggle is recorded and analyzed. It is a data company.

 

[Deleted member 855230]

old news. it wasnt stated official but a lot of people here were already masterizing user experience signals as much as they can.

its smart move on their side because now you dont only need onpage+offpage but also you need to keep visitors on your site and feed the AI-UX algo properly. in other words you need to perform better than current top 1 in all these 3 fields.

How long should a user stay engaged if the keyword is literally "mcdonalds hours near me"?? Anything longer than 10 seconds and that user is a fuckin' retard.

 

[W9go]

google would be stupid not doing that .....

 

[safeSEOboost]

like any data company, they analyze all the data they get, and they get ux data; but any confirmation of what they are focusing on is always good to hear.

 

[aidenhera]

How long should a user stay engaged if the keyword is literally "mcdonalds hours near me"?? Anything longer than 10 seconds and that user is a fuckin' retard.

yeah that "10 seconds" is a time based on top 10 results for that keyword. if top 1 has 20 secs, you need average 30

 

[tb303]

How long should a user stay engaged if the keyword is literally "mcdonalds hours near me"?? Anything longer than 10 seconds and that user is a fuckin' retard.

You'd get a knowledge graph answer for that anyway. So only engagement is googles ads.

 

[Deleted member 855230]

yeah that "10 seconds" is a time based on top 10 results for that keyword. if top 1 has 20 secs, you need average 30

It was a trick question, all the mcdonalds near me are 24 hours!!! Muahahahahahahaha

 

[bartosimpsonio]

Big sites have been using all sorts of gimmicks to fool this system.

Recently I visited a news site and it was impossible to exit it via the back button. They had a set of clever redirects that made it impossible to bounce.

Also note how so many news sites are opening new links in new windows, so it avoids closure of the original window. The user will continue browsing on the new window and the Google trackers keep tracking the original visit.

About them tracking us, well anyone still not convinced of that will simply keep getting penalized. This time last year everyone thought the tracking was tinfoil conspiracy stuff, this time of 2017 everyone is convinced about it, even the official google sock puppets. We're making progress.

 

[Bread]

That's the purpose of Chrome IMO. Bad for BH SEO

 

[tb303]

Recently I visited a news site and it was impossible to exit it via the back button. They had a set of clever redirects that made it impossible to bounce.

Shame you weren't using Chrome. They could have tracked all those back clicks and punished the site accordingly.

 

[aidenhera]

Big sites have been using all sorts of gimmicks to fool this system.

Recently I visited a news site and it was impossible to exit it via the back button. They had a set of clever redirects that made it impossible to bounce.

Also note how so many news sites are opening new links in new windows, so it avoids closure of the original window. The user will continue browsing on the new window and the Google trackers keep tracking the original visit.

About them tracking us, well anyone still not convinced of that will simply keep getting penalized. This time last year everyone thought the tracking was tinfoil conspiracy stuff, this time of 2017 everyone is convinced about it, even the official google sock puppets. We're making progress.

take your tinfoil hat off !