In a recent phone interview Dan Thies informed me that Google has been tracking click throughs on their search engine result pages (serps) for some time.
According to Dan, “when you view the source code of a Google search result page, you can see the format of the links looks like this: <a href=http://www.example.com onmousedown=”return clk(3,this)”>. That “onmousedown” event calls a Javascript function which tracks the click. In this example, it would be a click on the #3 result.”
This javascript creates a little image instance that tells Google that, say, link #3 was clicked. Dan thinks clickthrough tracking may become a part of the algorithm.
Quality Control. (Warning: speculation ahead.) It’s possible that if your listing gets clicked more than the expected average for a given search term, it may get “some kind of mojo points.” Google may measure this extra clicking as votes for your site and perhaps use this information in their algorithm.
“If nobody’s clicking on the search results Google knows it’s not delivering what they’re looking for. What are people who are drilling down into page two or three clicking on? Google may float those up higher.”
They can very easily identify the search results that fail to generate the click through rates that they should and begin adjusting their results that way.
Google used to have a feedback tab in their tool bar, and a link at the bottom of the results that asked “how are these results?” These methods of measuring the value of results required interaction from the searcher. Tracking clicks allows Google to do the work, and clicks tell a more complete story than direct user feedback.
As Dan said, “Real users don’t complain – they just search somewhere else.”
Why do you think Google’s tracking clicks?
Garrett French is the editor of Murdok’s eBusiness channel. You can talk to him directly at WebProWorld, the eBusiness Community Forum.