hi does google take the amount of traffic to a site as a factor ? and amount of time the surfer remains on site? and if it does, does it take the data from anlytics? and if i don't have analytics? so is it better to have or not to have analytics? thanks lenny
It's better to have analytics so that you can track your website's data. And yes Google does take into account how long people stay on your site, etc. Maybe I'm wrong but I believe google tracks this through the Google Toolbar that comes with most web browsers now. Even if you don't have Google Analytics, Google is still going to track your site data. Hope that helps
A factor for what? Search engine position? Absolutely not. Otherwise the top sites (naturally receiving the most clickthroughs) would never move. You should be tracking stats like this for your own internal marketing efforts but traffic levels are absolutely not a factor in the SERPS (how would google know this if you aren't using Google Analytics - any many people don't). I would suggest it's the same for time spent on site.
New sites get TOP 3 sometimes...and they dont have much traffic to begin, so im not sure, it is relevant.
Not only are analytics absolutely 100% absolutely (you will fail miserably without them) 100% super duper necessary, you also need to multivariate (or atleast split) test your conversion page. In this game "traffic = money" - famour quote from George Brown
Im sure Google is tracking the visitors but not by Analtytics thats impossible. They use cookies so your question about people who doesnt use or have analytics is also answered And how much move the big sites? Arent they big because of the traffic? For example: Google can easily store data like time spend in a cookie so if the user returns in lets say >10 seconds Google knows the page isnt relevant for the visitor for that particular keyword. There are more then 200 factors that have influence on the ranking of Google why wouldnt visitors (users who do a query and visit a site from the result) be one of them? That would mean a well optimized website with enough backlink spam can enter easily the top10 of any keyword, I dont believe that..
It's better to have analytic so that you can track your website's data. and also Traffic is most Important for Website Promotion....Its Main Factor for Websites Marketing...
Most of the large commercial sites use Omniture or Webtrends to track activity , not Goolge Analytics, so Google wouldn't have the first clue what traffic they are getting. It is not part of the algorithm. Bounce rate from the search page may be a tiny factor, i.e. if visitors click on the link from serps, and go straight back to the search page to find another results, as that speaks to the relevance of the listing.
Of course, the traffic is a big factor! But analytics is just a tool for you to track you website, not means the proof of your site traffic. So whatever you use or not use GA, google will know your site traffic by tracking users.
I am not sure if Google does consider traffic as a factor in serp because I have no basis to provide but one thing is for sure, GA is necessary for every website. It helps you monitor the development of your site in terms of traffic, bounce rate and conversion.