Reasons to suspect Google uses CTR as a ranking factor

Beyond my anecdotal examples, there are a number of good reasons to suspect that Google could use clicks of links in the search results as a ranking factor. Here are a few:

1. Google has long tracked clicks on its links

If this is unused data, why track the clicks? I tried to recall when I first glanced at Google results' HTML and saw that the links were being tracked. It might be sometime in the early 2000s.?

What do they do with all that data? After the advent of the inclusion of search analytics in Google's Webmaster Tools (later renamed to Google Search Console), this click data was at least used in webmaster reports.?

But, it was collected by Google well before the search analytics report.?

2. Google tracks clicks on ads

Click data affects rankings within the paid ads section. So, why wouldn't they do the same in organic??

It would not be a surprise if Google used a similar method in organic that they use in paid search, because they essentially have done that with their Quality Score.?

Over 15 years ago, Google rolled out its Quality Score, which affects ad rankings – and there is now ample evidence of Google using quality criteria in organic rankings.?

While different parts of Google – such as keyword search versus Maps – use different ranking methods and criteria, Google sometimes cross-pollinates methods.

3. Google?disclosed?in 2009 that clicks on search results affect rankings under the personalized search

If it is used or has been used in the past for personalized search results, it clearly can be used for regular results, too.

4. An independent researcher examined click-throughs as a ranking factor and found it to be a potentially valuable method

Dr. Thorsten Joachims?examined click-throughs as a ranking factor?and found it to be a potentially valuable method. Notably, he found:

• "The theoretical results are verified in a controlled experiment. It shows that the method can effectively adapt the retrieval function of a meta-search engine to a particular group of users, outperforming Google in terms of retrieval quality after only a couple of hundred training examples."?

Thus, in a limited study, it was found to be effective. Considering this, why wouldn't Google use it? Of course, his definitions for "outperforming Google" and determining usefulness likely differ from the criteria used by Google.

5. Bing uses click-throughs and bounce rate as ranking factors

Microsoft Bing search engine?confirmed?that they use click-throughs and bounce rate as ranking factors. However, they mentioned?caveats around it, so some other user engagement context is also used for evaluation.?

Search engines certainly use different signals and methods to rank content in search results. But, it is an interesting counterpoint to rhetoric that it is "too noisy" of a signal to be useful. If one search engine can use the signal, the potential is there for another.

6. If Google convinces people that CTR is not a ranking factor, then it reduces Google search as a target for artificial click activity

This makes it seem like there could be a substantial motive to downplay and disavow click activities as ranking factors. A parallel for this is Autocomplete functionality, where users' searches, and potentially also click activity, used to be very prone to bot manipulation.?

Google has long disliked artificial activity, like automated requests made by rank-checking software, and has evolved to detect and discount such activities.

However, bot activity in search results targeting ranking improvement through artificial clicks would likely quickly become more significant than they already handle. This can potentially create a negative impact on services similar to DDoS attacks.?

Despite the years and years of stating that CTR is not a ranking factor, I have seen many jobs posted over time on microtask platforms for people to perform keyword searches and click upon specific listings. The statements may not have accomplished deterrence, and Google may already be effectively discounting such manipulation attempts (or they are hopefully keeping some of that artificial activity out of Analytics data).

7. Google AI systems could potentially use CTR and Googlers would not know if or when it was impacting rankings

Three years ago, when I wrote about how Google could be?using machine learning to assess the quality of web pages, I strongly suggested that user interactions, such as click-through rate, could be incorporated into the machine learning models generated for a quality scoring system.?

An aspect of that idea could potentially happen, depending upon how Google builds its ML systems. All potential data points about websites and webpages could be poured into the algorithm. The system could select ranking factors and weight them according to what matches up with human quality rater assessments of search results.?

With such massive processing power to assess ranking factors, an algorithm could theoretically decide if CTR was or was not a useful predictor of quality for a particular type of webpage and/or website.?

This could produce ranking models for many thousands of different kinds of webpage and search query combinations. In such a system, CTR might be incorporated for ranking scientific papers but not for Viagra product pages, for instance.?

Source: searchengineland