Does Google track what results surfers click on?

I just got to thinking about this earlier - Does Google track the results surfers click on when they've run a search? Let's say hypothetically that I've got a site that ranks number five for a keyword, and it gets more clicks from searchers than the one at number four because of a more appealing description or title or whatever. Does Google notice it and factor it in along with all their other calculations the next time it's adjusting the SERPS?

 

No, but they do record this data for use in Adwords, Trends, etc.

 

if your link is http://www.domain.com they wouldn't know how many clicks you got unless you use analytics.(weather they use the info or not is another question. )
some links will be like http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.domain.com... and they do use that info.
an example would be,sitelinks.

 

I think Google does record some data from Google toolbar users if you accept during install. Not sure how indepth that is though.

 

I believe that they record the data but I don't know if it will affect the serps.

 

I think they use this information but it has a very weak influence over your ranking...

 

I believe they do. Here is, for example, the search result for my site, Math Art.

if you click on the first link, the address is actually:

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fmath-art.net%2F&ei=ZubjR6KXK4b6pgS-mKW_CA&usg=AFQjCNGc_ycsTT1_kmi2SICS736AWUw2YA&sig2=jXN3yHufTD6n9CSXF2EZ9w

Code (markup):

Note the excessively long referral address. It's not a straight http ref, but a directed reference, going thru their index (probably pinging it too).

 

Interesting. Thanks for the info everyone.

 

I think they track such behavior. It would be hard to say if that influence your ranking, but it's possible IMO.

 

They do track clicks in the search results and it does affect rankings. If a Google representative hasn't already acknowledged this, I'm sure one would if you asked them because it only makes sense for them to do so. If you look at the source code for the results pages, from time to time the links will be routed through a tracking script instead of directly to the page/URL shown. Yahoo! does this, too, and I'd bet Microsoft does as well, I just haven't actually seen them do it. They do this to monitor search quality. For example, if they spot a trend of fewer people clicking on the top five results on high-volume search terms, they'll know they've got a problem. By the same token, if the clicks on the top results are increasing, they know they're doing better.

 

I've always thought they track it, but I don't think it affects your SERPs, as if it did people could bot click it and use it for black hat. I don't recall Matt Cutts or anyone touching on this but maybe they did and I missed it.

 

I seem to recall having read that search users clicking on a particular link DID have some effect, but I think how much starts talking about the "secret sauce". I've noticed for some years that the links in google's search results are "cloaked" to redirect, so they CAN track the users interaction with the results. I would hope that they would take into account that could be easily gamed and either weight it VERY lightly or with some careful restrictions.

Of course, given the kind of information they gather with analytics and adsense, in theory they COULD do much more with the search results by leverage those streams of data - if a page has a high bounce/low length of time on page rate it get's a SERP penalty and so on. I suspect that at some point google will find itself needing to be a touch more transparent about which things DO actually influence search results.

 

I don't know how some of the other posters here can say "yes they do" or "no they don't" as if they know it to be fact. The real fact is that no one on this board knows. Only those at G who keep the trade secrets know.

Based on my observations, I believe that clicks do figure in, to a point and that G can detect false clicks as well as they do with AdWords which is pretty good.

So click-bots most likely would do no good.

/*tom*/

 

Not sure if they track it or not but the next big trend in online advertising is behaviorally ads