Not really a "be all, end all" solution. For example above the fold adsense ads can be clicked within first seconds and thus lower your bounce rate. Does that mean the site is of lower quality? No.
Interesting thread. Just a few points. 1. Google have been tweaking their algorithms since inception, and most of the changes have been seamless as far as the searcher is concerned. It is unlikely any future changes will be different. Moreover, the original author of the claim that "rank is dead" - Bruce Clay - continues to state on the front page of his website that "In fact, SEO is absolutely vital to your search engine marketing success. " So obviously he doesn't believe in these earth-shattering sea changes enough to change his business model. 2. It is by no means certain that Google are even planning to implement any such changes. User seoemporium is right about user-specific results not being a smart thing, since most users are not that smart. Google has succeeded by delivering good results to the great majority of people, not by catering to power users. I would be very surprised if "rank is dead" turns out to be true. This catchy phrase sounds a lot like link bait, actually, coming from someone who makes a living by using tools such as link bait. (I admit he's pretty good at it.) 3. Slight off-topic here... This is not necessarily the case. A site with great content can still have a pretty high bounce rate. For example, if users find everything they need on the page they land on, the bounce rate will still be zero. And nowadays you have things like, for example, people searching by opening one tab after the other, and closing all tabs after finding what they need on tab 1 or 2 - all the other tabs will end up with a bouncing user, who never even saw the site. And so on. Bounce rate is not a really good measure of "great content". The fact is that "great content" is DAMN hard to measure, which is why Google initially steamrolled over the competition with their clever use of link popularity, and why nowadays it takes more effort to promote a site than to make a site.
lets hope there will be improvements also with my positions on search engines ... actually a strange thing is google bot started to do nasty things on my forum ( I have a live update monitor there and I can see what urls spyders check and crawl ... ) ...
A search engine will always need to consider external variables to calculate their ranking. Those variables will always be influencable trough SEO as long as Google indexes private websites. I think there's a trend towards human editing of results, therefore content and quality will succeed. But there will always be spam where something can be exploited. There will always be reverse-engineering where money can be made and competition entices. You don't have to worry: - if you are not relying on organic traffic from search engines - if you are running a strong authority website and keep away from black-hat - if you offer value to your visitor and keep away from black-hat - if you earn money trough PPC with legit products - if you don't read every "uhh ohh i think a big google change is coming"-thread on DP
is this going to be done on a set date, or slowly over time? this could change the whole approach to seo
yes, if I was Google I wuold be doing this and yes it will only be a matter of time before the sleeze artists find a way to get around it and push worthless sites back up near the top... ... and Google will change its algorithms again...etc... people cheat -and the system tries to stop them. Its a constant game in all parts of life. see ya ET
envitably doing something this difficult will result in mishaps etc, if all else fails you still have Yahoo etc to fall back on...If all webmasters the concentrated on Yahoo, they would naturally search through Yahoo, then with a few errors here and there, the public would get annoyed and join Yahoo.....I believe such a change is an ideal time for Yahoo to launch an advertising campaign...Get the searches back in.
Well google is always trying to give the searchers what they are looking for. For example, if I type a question into google like, "why is the sky blue?" I want to find articles that tell me why the sky is blue. I don't want some website with url skyblue.net about some other random thing. Yes some searchers are too vague like with the java example. What exactly is the user looking for when they type in java? However, over time I think people start to use more detailed searches. Also in the sky example, i want accurate detailed information on why the sky is blue. The best explanation should be the number 1 result, not some other website that has a higher PR top domain name. This is what google is always striving for. As they increase their algorithm sites that provide searches with the information they are looking for will always be successful. That is why we always say, "content is king." Unfortunately, there are cases where SEO/authority is better than content. That is what google is trying to work out.
Thank you all for your comments. When I was saying "good content = 0% bounce rate" I was thinking more that the users stayed on the site for a while. There is no clear definition to "bounce rate" and I think Google doesn't clearly define it either. Bounce rate can mean several things to different people. It can mean: - Person leaves site immediately on entry and hits the back button, back to Google. - Person only visits one page and leaves, but they could have stayed on that one page for 10 minutes reading it. I wouldn't necessarily consider this a "bounce" but some people do (especially some stat programs). I doubt Google does (but who knows). Interested on other peoples thoughts on "bounce rates".
if this is going to apply, then there will be no future for new sites I don't think google going to remove the previous algos, just add the results of new algos to their existing So, the total effect to the net result....without user preference is going to remain the same So keep SEOing, it always makes traffic to your site
I have read posts like this for the past 3 years, but still effective white hat SEO methods work and get you to the top of search engines. Google knows they cant eliminiate SEO from there results because then spamy and junk sites will get to the top of search engines. People who run a honest site who use White Hat SEO which is around 99% of webmasters have nothing to worry about.
There is nothing new indeed - Google has always used all described above, it is a question of balancing everything in one search engine. And that is where it all becomes not so important. Just do what you were previously doing...
well well, sorry to say this, but most webmasters today place SEO before CONTENT, a bad website ranking above better website is not something google wants, they ll always try to beat people who abuse the algorithm system... so what is the solution? build outstanding content do not abuse the system and most importantly... do not believe in rumours!
I would welcome this move.... today most of Google results are manipulated ones.. and relevency is low....