Do more visits to my site make it place higher in searches?

[aperey]

I have been debating with fellow webmasters whether getting more visitors to my site will make it rise in the search engines. Incoming links have done this, but say I advertise in a newspaper and get 40 or 50 more visitors, will this make it go up in search engine rank listings?

[jbgilbert]

Good question, but don't look for a definitive answer.....

Rumors have abounded on this in the past, but the only people who know for sure are the SE techies locked away in a room somewhere and sworn to secrecy.

[GSO]

A spike in the number of visitors will have very little impact on your listing position. What is important is to increase your importance with a overall increase in your daily average visitor count. The bots compare from their last visit with your current daily average. Increase your quality content and give your visitors a reason to return.
Much success.

[jawn_tech]

Ah, to only get proprietary algorithm information is the most sought-after holy grail among geeks.

Godspeed on your quest.

For whatever it's worth, offline exposure as you mentioned (ie print advertising) also exposes you to other site owners who may discover your site and link to you. That of course will help your SE ranks. So I would say if you have the budget, it's still worthwhile.

[Jade456]

More clicks will help you if the link being clicked is a google adword link.

[rlrouse]

I have been debating with fellow webmasters whether getting more visitors to my site will make it rise in the search engines. Incoming links have done this, but say I advertise in a newspaper and get 40 or 50 more visitors, will this make it go up in search engine rank listings?

No.

[Andilinks]

If your visitors use the Google Toolbar their visits to your site are recorded by Google, and the same is true for most search toolbars though they are of small importance compared to the Goog.

We cannot be certain what Google is doing with these data but if I were to speculate I would consider it possible that your SERPS are affected.

Wondering about such things is much less productive than improving your content. Excuse me I must get back to my researc... errr... lunch.

Andi

[Phiber]

Alexa openly says:
"...Alexa's data come from a large sample of several million Alexa Toolbar users..."

You can read the whole traffic rankings explanation here.

[cbp]

Alexa is crap and meaningless.
See these threads and ALL the other threads we have had on this topic:
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=23376
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=17660
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=24627
http://www.webproworld.com/viewtopic.php?t=22579

I have been debating with fellow webmasters whether getting more visitors to my site will make it rise in the search engines. Incoming links have done this, but say I advertise in a newspaper and get 40 or 50 more visitors, will this make it go up in search engine rank listings?

No.

CBP

[rescom]

As usual CBP is full of joy and optimisism, except this time, I agree with him. Alexa is pretty much useless when it comes to ranking. A novelty at best.

Does more visitors mean better raning...that remains to be seen, but if the visitor has the Google toolbar, I have to assume that it counts for something.

I do know, that with AdSense, the number of clicks on an ad weighs heavily on the sort order. Perhaps it is the same for organic listings...

Google algorithisms are one of the most sought after facts, In reality, your guess is as good as anyone elss.

[Andilinks]

Alexa is pretty much useless when it comes to ranking.

I agree that the Alexa Ranking has very little to do with reality and actual comparisons of site traffic.

But through no effort on my part my current Alexa Ranking is 107,381 which seems impressive all things considered. So I do display it on my "About" page for the benefit of those who may also find it impressive.

This Alexa toolbar connection also produces about four or five Alexa referrals per day from people who click my link on the "Related Sites" portion of their toolbar.

The Toolbar itself is so sludge-ridden and filled with nasty little files and registry values that only the truly clueless must use it. Sadly they number in the millions.

Andi

[AjiNIMC]

Alexa is useless , but still there is a good crowd talking about alexa ranking and they feel proud to have a good Alexa ranking.

I donot use Alexa toolbars as it acts a spyware and is a little risk with privacy.

Regards

[cbp]

but still there is a good crowd talking about alexa ranking and they feel proud to have a good Alexa ranking.

Do you want me to get your Alexa ranking to under 80 000 within a couple of weeks for your site? I see its about 1 000 000 now .... should be easy to do.

CBP

[Phiber]

I know that alexa is useless.
I just wrote what is officialy stated about any browser addon toolbar.
I was on alexa lauging at their page view report for one of my sites with webproworld forums in the other firefox tab :-)

[Andilinks]

Alexa's uselessness is apparent here and on other forums like this, but a large segment of the general public tends to put credence in their numbers, which look credible at first glance and do have the Amazon name behind them.

This fiction does have some weight and I'd prefer to humor the crowds who think these have meaning than to argue with them about it...

If I thought my number was unfair though I might argue. :)

I did once run my Alexa number from 300k down to 60k in several weeks with almost no effort. So I'm certain with a coordinated effort much more could be done.

The number now shown is from Alexa without my help.

Andi

[sudhani]

Lets not "waste" more time on Alexa.

Coming back to the question raised by aperey, on whether more visitors will help your site rank better, the answer is yes and no.

No for the reason when the users access the site directly, no way the SE (even with the toolbar) will know for what keywords you rank better.

Yes in the following scenario:

The user has a toolbar installed.
Searches for "keyword" (or phrase).
You rank in the bottom of the page.
The user clicks many websites, including yours.
The user exits from the other websites within no time and goes on exploring your website more.

And many users does this, there is a "Slight" chance that your site's ranking for that keyword will improve.

Same user doing it many times wont help. This is a hypothesis only.

[redcircle]

Originally Posted by Andilinks

If your visitors use the Google Toolbar their visits to your site are recorded by Google

This is only if the user has google toolbar setup in advanced mode.

[larryweiss]

If your SERPS rise, more people will see your site and click on it. This will result in a traffic increase. So does traffic affect SERPS or do SERPS affect traffic?