Is web traffic a ranking factor?

[lkovnih226]

I don't see web traffic in 200 ranking factors but I believe it is considered as a ranking factor, more traffic means your site is getting good rankings and vice versa. What do you think about that? Is web traffic a ranking factor?

 

[SEOPub]

First, any list of 200 ranking factors is just a guess put out by someone. Nothing more.

Second, definitely not a ranking factor. I could list a ton of reasons, but the most obvious is that Google has no idea how much traffic most websites are getting, where the traffic is coming from, or what the traffic is doing. How can they use it as a ranking factor when they do not have the data?

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

EpicGlobalWeb

What about Google bombs? For instance, when a certain phrase is types in the search, that phrase is recorded. When it is typed in a lot, it becomes a Google trend, and then an aJax suggestion, right?

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Sure. But that has nothing to do with how Google is ranking the pages for that search term.

 

[StanleyDay]

StanleyDay

You have a lot to learn still. Google knows all the data about your site. Whether or not a website owner uses Google Analytics does not change the fact, it's what they use to rank all the sites online. Just because you cannot see the wind does not mean it does not blow.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

That is the dumbest thing I have read yet. Google is not omnipotent. Unless you give them access to the site, they have no way of knowing about your analytic data.

I don't know where you people learn this shit from, but you really should stop listening to whoever it is you are listening to.

Unless you are running Google Analytics or AdSense on your website or you host it with Google, they do not know what your traffic looks like. They would know how much traffic you get from their search engine or from other properties they own like YouTube, but they would have no way of knowing how much direct traffic you have or how much traffic you are getting from other sites.

 

[elcidofaguy]

I don't see web traffic in 200 ranking factors but I believe it is considered as a ranking factor, more traffic means your site is getting good rankings and vice versa. What do you think about that? Is web traffic a ranking factor?

If web traffic was a ranking factor then it would be pretty easy to manipulate through ads... Clearly traffic is not a factor as it would not make any sense... With improved rankings you can expect to get more traffic but it does not work the other way for obvious reasons.

 

[Leasedlayer]

Website traffic in not a ranking factor. Traffic may just get you some average conversion rates for your products. To get good website ranking there are many techniques available. On-page SEO and organic link building will help you to improve the ranking.

 

[hrishivardhan]

Traffic can never be a ranking factor. because it that's possible then spammer's have the maximum rankings on the google. because they can generate dummy traffic as much as they wants.

So it's not possible for google to count traffic as a ranking factor. I am totally disagree on this topic.

 

[robertcop1001]

The short answer is that no, a website's traffic does not have a direct impact on its rankings within organic search results. If this were the case, new content would never be able to rank, since it would have no traffic.

 

[kathyclark_sams]

a website's traffic does not have a direct impact on its organic rankings. But Google DOES use bounce rate as one factor in determining organic rankings.

Also, Content generates rankings, rankings generate traffic.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

No Google does not use bounce rate as a ranking factor. That is horsecrap.

Let's just ignore the fact that Google does not have bounce rate data on most websites because not every website is running Google Analytics or putting Google AdSense on their site. We will ignore that and pretend they do have that data.

A bounce, still is not a bad thing. Take a look at Wikipedia, for example. I bet they have a really high bounce rate. It's probably 90% or higher. People search for something specific, a Wiki page comes up, they find what they were looking for, and then go onto the next thing. Most people are not clicking around on internal links in Wikipedia.

So Google is going to ding Wikipedia for that?

That's just dumb.

I'm not even going to touch your content comment which is also just more silly BS.

 

[InFrontDigital]

Whilst it doesn't make sense for traffic to be a ranking factor, bounce rate and click through rate are considered good ranking signals for Google

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Click through rates in the SERP, maybe, although testing is difficult to prove that.

Bounce rate IS NOT A RANKING FACTOR.

 

[EpicGlobalWeb]

I assumed it would be because of their analyses in trends but you're right about that mattering in ranking now that I think about it. I guess that would only be the case if they did manual manipulations of rankings.

 

[GordonJ]

Second, definitely not a ranking factor. I could list a ton of reasons, but the most obvious is that Google has no idea how much traffic most websites are getting, where the traffic is coming from, or what the traffic is doing.

Most websites install Google analytics and webmaster tool hence they could easily know that.

How can they use it as a ranking factor when they do not have the data?

If a website doen't use Google analytics then they still can know its data with their tools, I saw SEO tools knew about my website traffic although I didn't install their tracking codes on my sites.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Totally wrong.

First, most websites on the internet DO NOT use Google Analytics. You need to get out of the little IM world. Most website owners don't even know what Google Analytics is.

Second, the only way Google can know about the traffic is if Google Analytics is installed, the webpage is using AdSense, or the visitor is using Chrome. Anyone browsing a website with Firefox that does not have Google Analytics or AdSense running on it and is not a site built on Blogger, Google would be completely oblivious too.

Any tool that you find that is telling you about website traffic without running a script on your site, such as Alexa, is just making a guess, and usually a poor one.

 

[lkovnih226]

Most people are not clicking around on internal links in Wikipedia.

I thought internal links on Wikipedia are really a big ranking factor for them in this case.

Totally wrong.

First, most websites on the internet DO NOT use Google Analytics. You need to get out of the little IM world. Most website owners don't even know what Google Analytics is.
.

I could not believe in this because if they put a HTML file to verify Google analytics for their site then how you know they are using Google analytics or not. Or just a guess?

 

[fastreplies]

more traffic means your site is getting good rankings and vice versa. What do you think about that? Is web traffic a ranking factor?

If that would be a factor then I would visit my site millions times
What do you think about that?


fastreplies

 

[lkovnih226]

lkovnih226

It does not help if you yourself visit your site millions times

But it can help if millions of people visit your site then it would be more different.

 

[fastreplies]

fastreplies

Why not?

???

fastreplies

 

[lkovnih226]

lkovnih226

If it helps then Google included your visits into this.
And millions of your visits will be on top in the table below

 

[FreebieBoy34]

In my opinion, web traffic cannot be considered as a determining factor for ranking websites. If this is the case then, newly published contents won't have any chances to rank since they don't have any traffic yet. And if this is then I could easily manipulate the traffic data by hiring someone to visit my site a thousand times a day or maybe do it by myself for that matter...

 

[SEOPub]

I thought internal links on Wikipedia are really a big ranking factor for them in this case.

Of course they are, but that has nothing to do with what traffic is doing. Just because you have internal links on a page doesn't mean they get clicked on.

I could not believe in this because if they put a HTML file to verify Google analytics for their site then how you know they are using Google analytics or not. Or just a guess?

Because Google has released numbers in the past about how many websites are using Google Analytics. It is a small percentage of the total sites on the internet.

 

[lkovnih226]

lkovnih226

Where is the link for the announcement of that? or it happened in 1990s

I don't think Google will announce exactly with their competitors that We (Google analytics) is being used by all websites all over the worlds.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

Google Analytics was not around in the 1990s.

In 2012, they said there were more than 10 million websites using Google Analytics.

http://marketingland.com/google-analytics-is-installed-on-more-than-10-million-websites-9935

It has been estimated that there are well over 1 billion websites on the internet, so even if Google has grown that number substantially in the last 4 years, it is still a small percentage.

 

[lkovnih226]

lkovnih226

It was 4 years ago and everything could be changed. Now is 2016 and preparing for 2017.
Yes in 2012, for a normal user like me, I didn't care about Google analytics or even not installed it on some websites but since 2 years ago, with useful tools from Google analytics I installed it on all my sites.
You can ask other webmasters or internet marketers, I am sure they installed Google analytics on all their sites.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

I have worked with many, many clients. Most of them had no idea what Google Analytics was or what WebMaster Tools was.

Again, even if Google has grown its user base significantly, most websites are still not using Google Analytics.

What you did with your websites over the past 2 years has nothing to do with this conversation.

Besides that, many major corporations and large websites do not use Google Analytics.

Just to give you a few examples... CNN, Best Buy, Wikipedia, and Amazon are all not using Google Analytics.

So once again, Google is not using traffic data as a ranking signal because they don't have access to it for the majority of websites in existence.

But if you want to go on believing that Google has increased the presence of Google Analytics from a roughly 1% market share to 100% market share in just 4 years, you go right ahead and keep believing that nonsense.

 

[fastreplies]

If it helps then Google included your visits into this.
And millions of your visits will be on top in the table below

OK, you have proved you have no idea how easy to screw G.

Next you will tell that there is no way to manipulate backlinks



fastreplies

Besides that, many major corporations and large websites do not use Google Analytics.

Just to give you a few examples... CNN, Best Buy, Wikipedia, and Amazon are all not using Google Analytics.

You can add a website to ignore G's Analytics, WMT, no-follow
and the rest of "don't do that or else" garbage list.

I guess there always will be people who will, if Google say 'jump' asking:
'how high?'




fastreplies

 

[lkovnih226]

I have worked with many, many clients. Most of them had no idea what Google Analytics was or what WebMaster Tools was.

Again, even if Google has grown its user base significantly, most websites are still not using Google Analytics.

What you did with your websites over the past 2 years has nothing to do with this conversation.

Besides that, many major corporations and large websites do not use Google Analytics.

Just to give you a few examples... CNN, Best Buy, Wikipedia, and Amazon are all not using Google Analytics.

So once again, Google is not using traffic data as a ranking signal because they don't have access to it for the majority of websites in existence.

But if you want to go on believing that Google has increased the presence of Google Analytics from a roughly 1% market share to 100% market share in just 4 years, you go right ahead and keep believing that nonsense.

I will believe if the report came from Google and it should be announced at this time

You can not estimate number of people using Google analytics based on a group of your clients or some big sites

Also I have to say you that if you view page source of Amazon, CNN then it is using Google analytics

For Amazon

<meta name="google-site-verification" content="9vpzZueNucS8hPqoGpZ5r10Nr2_sLMRG3AnDtNlucc4">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.amazon.com/">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">

For CNN, they are using Google Tag which include Google analytics, finding these codes in their page source

;googletag = win.googletag || {};googletag.cmd = googletag.cmd || [];googletag.cmd.push(function () {googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function (e) {BOOMR.plugins.GPT.done(e.slot.getSlotElementId());});});

What is Google tags?

Google Tag Manager is a free tool that makes it easy for marketers to add and update website tags -- including conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing, and more

The rest of these big sites, they are using their analytics because they don't want to reveal their analytics or trackings for Google knows.

For example, for bestbuy.com they are using tracking-liveManager tool which they could build for themeself.

function startLegacyAnalytics(){Lm.A({a:"s_code",b:Lm.pre+"s_code-min.js",c:1}),Lm.A({a:"trackEvent",b:Lm.pre+"trackEvent-min.js",c:1,d:"trackEvent.INIT();trackEvent.event('event.view',track);",e:"trackEvent={event:function(a,b){Lm.q['trackEvent']={a:a,b:b}}}"})}var Lm={q:{},l:[],f:{},p:0,o:0,h:location.hostname,A:function(a,b,c,d){if(a.c&&this.l.push(a),this.config.load[a.a]&&(b=document,b.createElement&&(c="Lm_"+a.a,!b.getElementById(c)))){if("undefined"!=typeof a.e)....

etc.

OK, you have proved you have no idea how easy to screw G.

Next you will tell that there is no way to manipulate backlinks

You don't really understand which I said and need to re-read my previous post which answered your questions below

Why not?

???

fastreplies

If that would be a factor then I would visit my site millions times
What do you think about that?


fastreplies

 

[SEOPub]

The point was that you can find tons of sites not using Google Analytics. Do 25 random searches and look at the top 50 sites for each search. You will see that most of the results are not using Google Analytics.

Yes, and Best Buy, as well as many, many other websites are using other analytics programs. Not Google Analytics. There are tons of sites created that are not using any analytics at all. They are just hobby sites, not marketers. They have no idea what they are doing.

Once again Google does not have the data for every site out there, so there is no way they would be using traffic data.

Like I said, in 2012 Google said that about 10 million websites were using Google Analytics. If you really want to believe that in just 4 years, another 990 million plus jumped on board, then you are clearly either clueless or a forum troll just trying to argue no matter what.

You asked the question, and you have been shown plenty of proof that they are not using traffic data as a ranking signal. Yet, you still want to argue it.

 

[SEOPub]

Oh, and by the way, that string of code you found on Amazon is not Google Analytics. That is the verification code for Google Search Console, which does not track the site's traffic. That tag does not give Google access to any additional traffic data. It just verifies ownership of a site. That's it.

 

[Ron Killian]

Totally wrong.

First, most websites on the internet DO NOT use Google Analytics. You need to get out of the little IM world. Most website owners don't even know what Google Analytics is.

Did you not read that?

It was 4 years ago and everything could be changed. Now is 2016 and preparing for 2017.
Yes in 2012, for a normal user like me, I didn't care about Google analytics or even not installed it on some websites but since 2 years ago, with useful tools from Google analytics I installed it on all my sites.
You can ask other webmasters or internet marketers, I am sure they installed Google analytics on all their sites.

Why ask questions if you're just going to argue the point?

 

[lkovnih226]

Did you not read that?

Why ask questions if you're just going to argue the point?

Because Google analytics was menetioned in the prevous reply and its realted to web traffic and a bit more related to my question, I would to dig deep into it.

Google knows all the data about your site. Whether or not a website owner uses Google Analytics does not change the fact, it's what they use to rank all the sites online. Just because you cannot see the wind does not mean it does not blow.

I can agree with this opinion because if we don't install Google analytics on our sites then how other SEO tools will know exactly about website statistics on my sites while I didn't install their tracking codes or verifications from them?

If no how Open Site Explorer, Moz tools, Semrush and other SEO tools can analyze our sites when we type our domain on their tools without putting their codes.

I think Google analytics is just a thing for users to know their site analytics, if they didn't install it, Google doesn't care about that, they could know.

 

[SEOPub]

SEOPub

The only thing those tools know about your site is what they can see superficially by visiting the site as well as other sites on the internet. When SEMrush shows traffic data, that is just a guess based on what they see for rankings and AdWord ads. It is not actual traffic data, and they have no idea about direct traffic or traffic generated through social media.