What’s this about?
Gah! Okay, so now I’m frustrated.
Google this week saying they DON’T use click data for search rankings goes against what another Googler said a week or so ago.
Unfortunately, this is a perfect example of the confusion caused by Google’s reps saying anything, ever. They get trapped by out-of-context dissection of the minutiae of what they say, and everyone ends up confused.
Follow the link to read about this week’s version of the click-data / rankings argument.
#SEO #SEONews #Google #SearchRankings #ClickData
This Week Google Says They DON’T Use Click Data for Search Rankings
Summary:
- In a frustrating, left-hand right-hand moment, Google now denies it uses click-data for search rankings, despite what they said last week.
- They really are tying themselves in knots over this and it’s a little embarrassing for them.
- They do admit that maybe, possibly, potentially, they use something like this kind of data for testing.
- But not anything else, oh no.
Actions to take:
- Sigh. It’s almost time to think that Google doesn’t always know what it is doing.
- It’s also almost time to think that its representatives sometimes don’t have every answer, or knowledge of every situation.
- It’s likely time to think Google does use some sort of click-tracking in its results, especially as Bing wants to move to cohort led search.
- The best you can do to influence it, is to be the definitive, quality answer for a search result, so the user doesn’t have to search again, and again.
- Click here to contact me to discuss creating great query-answering content.
Discussion:
Let’s get something clear. Google has always user tested everything. Every colour, every block, almost every result. The thought that they don’t use click-testing in some way, manner, or form, is a long way beyond daft and approaching outright stupidity.
Is it every SERP? Maybe, maybe not. Is it every query? Probably not. But, you can bet that the most popular queries will have been tested for performance and back. It would be really silly not to.
Of course, some of the learnings would go back into the algorithms, and some would be tested against live people, that would make a great deal of sense. What doesn’t make any sense is that they wouldn’t do any click testing at all.
More info:
The State of SEO Mid-2017 Released
TL;DR
- Do they use click data for search rankings?
- Don’t they use click data for search rankings?
- Well, since Bing told us about their long-term vision for cohort led search results, I think they do, but it’s not as significant as people want it to be.
- Read The State of SEO in mid-2017.
- Read about how Google’s Mobile First Index is not Mobile Friendly.
- Finally, get your content ranking well on Google by starting to understand Find Crawl Index.
Thanks for reading. If you would like to discuss what these changes mean for your web property, or would like to know how to implement them, please feel free to contact me.
