My CTR/Bounce Rate vs. Google

I have been running my own custom browser piloting software that controls IE9 using mouse moves and clicks and sendKeys with human like delays to search and click specific links in the results to measure if improved CTR or bounce rate will effect rankings. (I currently use a pool of 95 dedicated proxies by the way. Don't try this at home.) As of today and for the past month the answer is definitively no for both high volume and low volume search terms. CTR & Bounce Rate are not primary ranking factors. They may be tie breaker conditions when you are neck in neck with a site. The difference between no improvement and absurd improvement in CTR/Bounce (as measured by google analytics) is at best +1 place in the SERPs.

I'll keep the experiment alive for another month to see if there is anything in the new panda release, but I personally feel CTR and Bounce rate aren't worth the effort at this time and don't appear to be a meaningful part of panda either.

I'll update when something changes or when I kill the experiment... which ever comes first.

cheers,

Ted

I always felt that bounce rate doesn't matter but you will always see the SEO ditto heads still say it does. Thanks for the experiment! Keep it up, I love how logical you get with your experiments. A lot of people in this forum can't appreciate the stuff you put out but I think it's really useful.

Interesting experiment, but don't you think G would discard clicks from proxies just to prevent manipulation like this?