Crazy idea...

Here is my understanding. Eventually Google is going to stop caring too much about backlinks, and will start monitoring where people spend their time.

Ok... here is the premise... let's say that you are in the top 100 SERP for a specific keyword.

Google now tracks which results people click for a specific search term (and has been for awhile).

Would it not make sense to build a PPC site, where people from all over the world go and find your site in the results then click on it to tell Google - hey people are interested in this!

I believe that you could entirely dominate the SERP. In fact whoever owns a PPC network out there I would say - try to automate this and make it a service where people would feed in list of keywords and URLs that if they are found in the SERP top 100 - then click on them.

But has to go through the browser's javascript generated link.

Thoughts? Comments?

Google is never going to care more about how many people click on a site than how many links a site has.

First off the only way they can track traffic is visits from the Google site. The majority of people online visit websites without going through Google. How could they ignore most of the traffic on the internet and come up with any kind of accurate rankings?

Second with some proxies and forged referrers this would be way too easy to fake. Matt Cutts answered a question about counting how often a website was mentioned as a way to determine rankings and I believe his answer also is applicable for this one as well. He said that it was just too easy to game the system, at least with counting links the people (liks us) have to get a link out there but without even needing a link you could leave the info anywhere. Just way too easy to fake. I think the same thing goes for using traffic. Way too easy to fake.

Google is never going to switch to a ranking system that uses information they can not track and is way easier to fake than they have now. Just not going to happen. Links are here to stay for quite awhile.

Although there have been rumors about google taking alexa stats and user time into account I dont think u can "fake" this so easily.

And Google will never stop care about backlinks

Did I say it will stop caring? I said it will stop caring too much.

As soon as I find a little bit more time I will organize an experimental group and I will let you know how it turns out.

Just because Matt Cutts said something doesn't mean Google is not going to use the data available.

Also don't forget they don't have to just look at the clicks - they have the toolbar and chrome, AdSense, etc. they have SO MUCH data on user behavior it would be a shame if they are not using it!

crazy theory*

I admit it is a theory based on limited observation, but there is only one way to find the truth - and that is to try it full scale!

EDIT: And yes, I am aware that if you are logged in and click on a link for a search it will be on top the next time.

I will do a quick test right now going through random proxies and clicking on a specific result to see what that does to my SERP.

I've been thinking kinda the same thing lately - My site along with my 2 main competitors have been dancing up and down from 2 to 8 for about a week now. Sometimes even losing/gaining 5 positions in minutes.

This got me thinking why?

are the googlegods unsure which site is really worthy. Are they collecting data on conversions in each position for each site and then feeding that info into a new algorithym? With their own browser and so many sites running analytics it wouldn't be too hard to measure time spent on site as well.

I don't know, but it's behaviour I haven't noticed before with any of my sites. Below page 2 they seem to jump around all the time but once they hit page 2 each move has always been steady, not like this.

I am running a mini experiment with a interior page that is doing the same however the sample will be too small to believe any results. I'll post what I find here anyway for anyone who is interested.