Don't do this, ever

bartosimpsonio · Sep 5, 2019

So I thought I was pretty clever and I decided to boost my pages per visitor on a experimental site.

Guy would be reading the content and the page clicked one of its random links automatically, generating a new page view like a real click.

So far so good, my bounce rate went < 10% and life was good.

But then came the problems.

Google considers javascript actions as links.

For some magical clusterfucking reason the cache for the landing pages showed the page javascript redirected to.

I had made a mess of my site. Google considered the original URL like a 301 to wherever javascript clicked.

Took me 6 months to clean it up.

tl;dr; Don't boost your pageviews or lower your bounce rate using javascript, you'll fuck the whole site up.

EXTRA BLACK HAT BONUS

Unles you're a masterfucking cloaker lord and cloak out the javascript from googlebot.....but don't do this, it's likely illegal and you'll get black vans out your window and shit. Use for informational purposes only.

RenegadeX · Sep 5, 2019

Noted. Not a bad idea though. Props for that.

Yee · Sep 5, 2019

if a script creates a click event the browser register the event as not trusted.

Code:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Event/isTrusted

Guy would be reading the content and the page clicked one of its random links automatically, generating a new page view like a real click.

bartosimpsonio said:
So I thought I was pretty clever and I decided to boost my pages per visitor on a experimental site.

Guy would be reading the content and the page clicked one of its random links automatically, generating a new page view like a real click.

So far so good, my bounce rate went < 10% and life was good.

But then came the problems.

Google considers javascript actions as links.

For some magical clusterfucking reason the cache for the landing pages showed the page javascript redirected to.

I had made a mess of my site. Google considered the original URL like a 301 to wherever javascript clicked.

Took me 6 months to clean it up.

tl;dr; Don't boost your pageviews or lower your bounce rate using javascript, you'll fuck the whole site up.

EXTRA BLACK HAT BONUS

Unles you're a masterfucking cloaker lord and cloak out the javascript from googlebot.....but don't do this, it's likely illegal and you'll get black vans out your window and shit. Use for informational purposes only.

Android Tipster · Sep 5, 2019

I admire people who take risks and report about it so I don't have to.

bartosimpsonio · Sep 5, 2019

Yee said:
if a script creates a click event the browser register the event as not trusted.

Code:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Event/isTrusted

Good info. Didn't know about that. Thanks.

Android Tipster said:
I admire people who take risks and report about it so I don't have to.

That's the idea.

Maxontheway · Sep 5, 2019

I admire people who take risks and report about it so I don't have to. Good sharing.

Surgation · Sep 5, 2019

I'm still unsure what cloaking is, if you could enlighten me !

gambit1983 · Sep 5, 2019

Damn, 6 months? Ouch.

Ohmnito · Sep 5, 2019

Surgation said:
I'm still unsure what cloaking is, if you could enlighten me !

Thank you dictionary.cambridge.org !

Surgation · Sep 5, 2019

Ohmnito said:
Thank you dictionary.cambridge.org !

Haha! I didn't mean the dictionary definition of cloaking. I meant the SEO implications of Cloaking, with the legality in mind. Never heard of it, especially when I find out now that it's illegal!

Ohmnito · Sep 5, 2019

Surgation said:
Haha! I didn't mean the dictionary definition of cloaking. I meant the SEO implications of Cloaking, with the legality in mind. Never heard of it, especially when I find out now that it's illegal!

'twas merely a jape, brother.

SEOfarmer · Sep 5, 2019

Google don't even measure bounce rate in a way that would suggest your little trick even works.

They measure if the user visits the site and then returns to the serp to click on another result.

They can click around on your page all they want, makes no difference to Google. They want to measure the last page the user clicked so they can work out which page actually answered the query.

Yee · Sep 5, 2019

I always wonder how this would work for site without analytics, maybe internally Chrome tracks user behavior ?

SEOfarmer said:
Google don't even measure bounce rate in a way that would suggest your little trick even works.

They measure if the user visits the site and then returns to the serp to click on another result.

They can click around on your page all they want, makes no difference to Google. They want to measure the last page the user clicked so they can work out which page actually answered the query.

chinup · Sep 5, 2019

Thanks for the heads up.

mainceaft · Sep 6, 2019

Yee said:
I always wonder how this would work for site without analytics, maybe internally Chrome tracks user behavior ?

In fact G had Chrome analytics data (on different name ) collecting user experiences from users who agree to share their UX with G , in fact that option is clicked by default so I assume 90% of chrome user have their data collected via G

Motorhead · Sep 6, 2019

I also did it long time ago.

RAP · Sep 6, 2019

SEOfarmer said:
Google don't even measure bounce rate in a way that would suggest your little trick even works.

They measure if the user visits the site and then returns to the serp to click on another result.

They can click around on your page all they want, makes no difference to Google. They want to measure the last page the user clicked so they can work out which page actually answered the query.

This.
One of my test project has not analytics code in the page.
Google can't know the AVG time, the page views, the bounce rate.
It knows nothing about user behavior.
It has not any stats.
But it ranks in page 1.
Competitive keyword.

bartosimpsonio · Sep 6, 2019

SEOfarmer said:
Google don't even measure bounce rate in a way that would suggest your little trick even works.

They measure if the user visits the site and then returns to the serp to click on another result.

They can click around on your page all they want, makes no difference to Google. They want to measure the last page the user clicked so they can work out which page actually answered the query.

You forget about:

chrome
analytics
adsense
phones tracking apps

For many many years now, Google don't just track the first hop from serps, they track everything.

Don't do this, ever

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