Does Google use your analytics' bounce rate as a ranking factor?

We’ve been reading recently, that Google doesn’t actually use a website's “personal" Google Analytics to determine that specific website's ranking.

This is a big issue for us, all our clients, the SEO world, and basically everyone around the globe who cares about their Google Analytic's report.

So what do we know? First, let's say what the SEO world does know:

1. that Google has hundreds, or thousands, of algorithms they use to determine how worthy a website is of ranking well, and
2. NO ONE knows exactly what Google’s algorithms are (they are an extremely well-protected trade secret).

So what about your Google Analytics?

Are the bounce rates shown on your own website's Google Analytics relevant for Google determining how worthy your website is of ranking well?

Matt Cutts, the Google Guru (whose official title is: Head of web spam team and search quality) is quoted as saying no, as you can see here.

There's two sides to every story.

Team "No they don't use your analytics"

And is the team we are starting to side with after doing our reading of SEO blogs.

Here's why:

The SEO-world knows Google has hundreds of its own algorithms they use to rank your site. Many we know of, like:

• Page Titles
• Meta Descriptions
• Alt tags
• Quality links that are not “click here,” but use relevant words in the actual links...

...NONE of which are reflected on our, or your, company's personal Google Analytics report. So if all those known on-page SEO items aren't reflected in your analytics, how important can your analytics be?

team "Yes, they use your analytics"

These are the folks who believe in a Google conspiracy, and are of the "You-can't-believe-everything (or anything) Google-says" school. (They think it's because Google is bent on world domination.)

Read a recent blog from this firm in the U.K. who is suspicious of everything Google says vs. what they do.

However, we tend to disagree with their perspective because:

• EVERYTHING has two sides to it, and as we said earlier,
• NO ONE knows exactly what Google’s algorithms are.

What the SEO community does agree on.

The SEO community agrees there are a bunch of "on-page SEO" factors that are relevant to getting Google's algorithms to like your website. Again, NONE of those factors appear on your Google Analytics.

What are all the things the SEO community thinks Google’s algorithms are checking? We like this list of on-page SEO tips, you can see here.

Does Google use bounce rates to determine if your website is good?

The SEO community thinks yes, but the more we read, the more we think "yes, but..."

Yes, but not necessarily the bounce rates from your (or our) website’s personal analytics. We recently read it is possible manipulate the analytics, though we suspect the ones who do that are extremely rare.

So why would YOUR website's Google Analytics not be what Google uses to determine accurate bounce rates? Because your analytics are hosed by all the websites directing traffic to your site that have a 100% bounce rate.

That is NOT an accurate read on the quality of your website, because those referral sources are all major spam sites. And for the most part, every website has those spam sites in their analytics.

From everything we understand about Google, we think they're smart enough to know that, which is why they aren't using our, or your, website's analytics to determine our page rank.

So what is the purpose of our own analytics?

The purpose for your website’s analytics is to help you see how people use your website. What pages they come in on, what pages they leave on. How long they stay. Things that may be ble to hlep you

Bottom line: Google Analytics isn't the be-all, end-all of determining your websites value for ranking well.

Can I stop those 100% bounce rate referral sites from even showing up... just in case?

We can. And we could do that for you.

We've done it for some of our client's websites by blocking those obviously spam referral sites like www.Get Free Traffic Now.com. (FYI: we removed the dashes from between the words of the URL, because we don't want to give them the courtesy of giving them a back link.) But they keep coming back, so they're pretty smart, too, coming up with workarounds.

Does blocking those sites really work?

The jury is out on that right now (as of July 2015). What we're seeing from those websites we're blocking the spammy referral site, is that more and more, those damn sites have something about them where they continue to show up on Analytics. Even AFTER we add code in to block them from showing up in your (and our) analytics.

Then there is the question: By just blocking them from just showing up in your analytics, does that really make a difference? Are they still coming to your site and still giving you those huge bounce rates?

It's impossible to prevent someone from visiting your website.

We can block them from showing up in your analytics, but we can't stop them from visiting your website. And since they're still visiting your site, and still having 100% bounce rates, does it really matter that we're blocking them from showing up in analytics at all? They're still visiting your site, and still having that stinkin' 100% bounce rate.

We have to admit we don't know the answer to that question right now.

Yes, we know it makes you, and us, feel better not seeing them in the Google Analytics reports. But is that all it does, considering all the other factors?

This conversation is to be continued...

If you have a question about this, feel free to drop us an email.