Is Google rewarding engagement signals more than ever?

Lately I’ve been seeing pages with better user engagement rank higher even when their backlink profile isn’t that strong.
Do you think Google is rewarding engagement signals more than ever?

Things like CTR, dwell time, bounce rate, repeat visits, etc. are these actual ranking factors or just indirect signals?

Curious to hear real-world experiences from others testing this.

When users consistently click a result, stay engaged, interact with the page, and don’t return to search immediately, Google gets strong satisfaction signals that the result matched intent well. That is why pages with weaker backlink profiles can sometimes outperform stronger ones if the experience is better. From real-world testing, I have noticed that improving structure, speed, readability, internal linking, and intent alignment often boosts rankings even without new backlinks. So engagement itself may not be a “direct factor,” but user satisfaction clearly affects how Google evaluates content quality and relevance over time.

Ive noticed the same trend lately. While backlinks are still the foundation, it definitely feels like Google is using engagement signals to validate if a page actually satisfies search intent. If a site has high dwell time and repeat visits, it often stays sticky in the rankings even if the competition has a stronger backlink profile.

That’s obvious — if you attract a lot of users, or spend a lot of money on ads or anything else, not just on Google but also on Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, etc., they’ll prioritize you. That’s their source of income after all, just like the saying: the customer is king

it’s indirect but powerful. ctr and dwell time act like validation signals. if content holds users, rankings stabilize even with lighter backlink profile