http://www.1stsearchenginerankings.com/2007/06/08/google-bounce-factor-research-data-is-in/ I just concluded a research project to determine whether Google Analytics data had any effect on Google rankings. 2 experiments are presented in the article and the information could be useful in determining why you may have lost or gained a ranking unexpectedly. Please post your comments/questions and research you have done.
good info thanks I use analytics and my stats are below for the last month from your data should I be rising in Google ? 180,313 Visits 16.41 Pages/Visit 35.75% Bounce Rate 2,958,272 Pageviews 00:08:49 Avg. Time on Site 59.35% % New Visits
Your bounce rate is about average. I would check your google searches in Analytics and check the individual bounce rates. If they are about that same rate and about average 8 minutes you may see them increase. Of course it highly depends on the phrase, the competition and their data of course. But your data looks good overall so you should either have positive effects or none at all. But again the individual bounce rates of each of your search phrases play a role too. good luck!
I use google analytics. The bounce factor I totally believe. On my polling site APC, there are thousands of polls. Not all polls are googled equally. The polls people actually voted on after finding from google seemed to end up ranking well later. Here is an example. Using the search term "the bachlor" from the t.v. show I got a bunch of votes the first day or two. Unfortunately the show ended the next day, and the searching was over. But if you search for that show now, you will see I am still #2. I still get hits on it. There are other polls on the site that are worded almost exactly the same, but the google visitors just bounced instead of voting. After a while those polls no longer get the google hits for that keyword anymore, or rarely anyhow. I'm guessing I will lose that ranking over time. My hits keep going up though as long as members keep creating those polls. Getting a nice tail.
Personally, I make a good bit of money having a high bounce rate. They bounce on ads. Websites that are more geared toward advertising will have this issue.
I was actually discussing this with a friend today, before I had even seen this post. One of my sites running analytics has jumped from 70+ to 7 in the space of a few weeks and i wondered if it could be partly down to analytics. here's my current stats for the last month 1,594 Visits 10.51 Pages/Visit 21.89% Bounce Rate 16,753 Page Views 00:09:25 Avg. Time on Site 60.23% % New Visits
I'd say that it is a very good chance that played a role in the rise. The bounce rate looks good and the average time on site is also pretty good. So yes I would say that is probably the reason. Now watch your pages which have high bounce rates(if you have any ) and see if they don't decrease overtime.
Just been having a good look through google analytics and found the bouncerate page for the last 30 days. WOW. Some of my days are as low as 8.22% I take it thats VERY good.
I really do not believe Analytics or visit duration has an effect on ranking. The visit idea was being thrown around in 2003, we tested it by doing a keyword search and clicking on a members #1 site then hitting the back button after about 5 seconds. Then we would visit our test site which was #8 and browsing for quite some time before returning to Google and doing a random unrelated search giving the impression we had found our info on site #8. There was absolutely no change. I tried it on a smaller scale in December with the same nil results. Likewise with analytics, ive put them on high bounce rate sites with no negative effects and vice versa. Sites flux in the SERPs daily with no changes done to them, and theres 100s of variables so your dataset isnt extensive enough to make a claim when theres evidence of the opposite happening unfortunately.
Well we are in the year 2007 so expect a little difference in test results. I also can tell you positively for a fact that the bounce factor does indeed exist. If the tests weren't proof enough the analytics data I have been researching certainly is. If you can show me a phrase you rank for that has a high bounce rate and which is on the 1st page and which does NOT go down overtime and I will believe you.