Does Traffic affect sites page postion?

[goervin]

Does how much traffic a website gets effect you sites page position in Google?

If it does, how much weight do they apply to it over other factors such as links, optimization, or tags?

Big Question: How does Google know how much traffic your site is getting? Do they only judge how much comes directly from Googles search engine? Do other forms of advertising traffic increase you position in Google?

[cbp]

Does how much traffic a website gets effect you sites page position in Google?

No.

How does Google know how much traffic your site is getting?

They have no way of knowing that.

Do they only judge how much comes directly from Googles search engine?

They know that from periodic samples they take, but do not use it for ranking purposes.

Do other forms of advertising traffic increase you position in Google?

No.

CBP

[HardCoded]

I agree with everything CBP said, except for the idea that the samples are periodic. They have been recording who clicks what in the SERPs for at least 1.5 years.

[wavedancing]

I agree with everything CBP said, except for the idea that the samples are periodic. They have been recording who clicks what in the SERPs for at least 1.5 years.

Is there any evidence shows the tracking? I know they track the clicks for the adwords links but don't know if they track it for the regular search results.

[cbp]

Is there any evidence shows the tracking?

1. You see the tracking code in your logs
2. They said they do it.

CBP

[tcampione]

I've never seen a tracking code in my logs. (not saying it doesn't/can't happen, just I've never seen it.)

All I've ever seen is the language reference and UTF8 reference along with search terms. If the advance search was used, advanced settings are part of the query too.

Can you tell me what to look for? (Just curious)

Yeah, pretty bad.... I find log files exciting. :-)

/*tom*/

[JohnF]

I have a slightly different take from several of you on click thrus affecting SERPS. Not willing to argue but willing to try to prove it.

We have enough people in here to do a controlled study within a matter of days. (BTW, this is one I conducted late last month)

We need six or more people to do a search in google on the exact same search term. They should then find the test site and click thru. This should be done no more than twice a day from the same IP address. If you have access to more than one IP address search twice a day from each. Keep track of the starting position of the site and how many times you clicked on it in a given day.

The test site should be easy to find and not buried a hundred pages down. It must stay static for the test days(no changes) but we can't overlook the possibility that someone will link to it during that time. However, I don't really believe that backlinks affect SERPS on a short term basis. We should be a week or more away from an update.

My site is pretty well settled at 18 for my primary search term. It's in a pool of only about 30000 sites for that term so it's pretty easy to get a decent SERP. I can forego changes for three or four days to see what happens. If someone else has a site to propose I'll gladly go with yours although I only have one IP address and can only do two searches a day.

If anyone is interested in trying this I'd really like to see the results of another trial. I can post my email addy and coordinate kick off and stop times or one of you can handle the data input and results. If you want to propose another site for the test (assuming I get enough positive response), please make it one within the first few pages and one with a small pool of hits. i.e. If your search term returns a million hits, six or so people aren't going to be enough to return valid results. Quantity of searches are also a factor. My term is searched on one of the engines about 600 times a day. If your term is searched 6 million we wouldn't have enough people.

Any takers?
JohnF

[vivekar]

How does Google know how much traffic your site is getting?

IMO, Google does not know how much overall traffic your site is getting...
BUT, it knows how much traffic it is sending to your site.
It tracks using a javascript code via img...

Just check out the search results.. and you will see like
onmousedown="return clk(this,'res',7)" ...
This is an indicator.
May be an extrapolation will give a rough number.
I am not very sure whether google does this or not. But, with Google Toolbar hits, it is a possibility.

[tcampione]

If anyone is interested in trying this I'd really like to see the results of another trial.JohnF

Although there have been strong arguments on both sides, I'm curious enough to participate in another trial.

I don't have time to build a site, but sure have time to click a couple of times a day.

/*tom*/

[wavedancing]

IMO, Google does not know how much overall traffic your site is getting...
BUT, it knows how much traffic it is sending to your site.
It tracks using a javascript code via img...

Just check out the search results.. and you will see like
onmousedown="return clk(this,'res',7)" ...
This is an indicator.
May be an extrapolation will give a rough number.
I am not very sure whether google does this or not. But, with Google Toolbar hits, it is a possibility.

Thanks for the replys. I saw the javascript code. I have to aggree that google does track if the result get clicked.

Now the question becomes : Does it affect SERPs? I don't know. But I think at the search engine point of view, it should not affect the SERPs. Because the user click it based on a limited information, usually a couple of lines. If I put "free luch offered at my site!", my link is more likely to be clicked. But google is on their own. They may be generating the data and compare it with page rank. If they think that data does have some correlation with page rank, or soft of the "importance" of the page, they might incorporate the algorithm to have it affect future SERPs. If that day comes, you might have to run a program automatically click your site thousands of time a day. I'd like to hear what you guys think.