Does Usage Count In Rankings? Options

[Traffic-Bug]

I have thought about this before. There is an option in Google Toolbar "Send usage statistics to Google". So Google is tracking web users who are using Google Toolbar. So may be it has an effect on rankings?

As stated in another thread, anybody can do crowd-sourcing to visit some website when using Google Toolbar and linger around that site for a few minutes. Then usage data gets uploaded to Google. This can probably lead to improved rankings.

Any proof that it works?

I also surmise that, by hiring people to keep track of my website by signing up with ChangeDetection.com, it may possibly improve the rankings I get with Google.

[Randy]

So Google is tracking web users who are using Google Toolbar.

Yes, I'm sure they do.

But they have other ways to get even more information about user behavior.

As for all the rest, you're making some pretty wild assumptions based upon unproven theories. I have never seen any evidence at all that suggests sites that get a lot of visits from Toolbar-enabled users have any advantage in the SERPs at all. None, nada. Nor have I seen any evidence that people using Google's Chrome browser or sites using Google Analytics or sites buying Adwords ads receive any SERP advantages.

Without any evidence or hard facts to support such theories you'd be far better served to assume there is no effect.

[Jill]

It would not surprise me if at some point Google took the aggregate data that they receive via their toolbar and other means, and use it to help determine relevancy.

That said, my belief is that it would take tens of thousands (if not more) of people proving that they really liked a particular page for a particular query before it would have any effect. I imagine it would also be easy for them to spot abusive patterns for those people who thought it would be a good idea to hire others to click on their stuff. That's child's play for Google.

[Nueromancer]

It would not surprise me if at some point Google took the aggregate data that they receive via their toolbar and other means, and use it to help determine relevancy.

That said, my belief is that it would take tens of thousands (if not more) of people proving that they really liked a particular page for a particular query before it would have any effect. I imagine it would also be easy for them to spot abusive patterns for those people who thought it would be a good idea to hire others to click on their stuff. That's child's play for Google.

if they do I bet a bottle of Moet that some one will try and run a botnet influence googles rankings withing 6 months of it becoming known

[Jill]

Not taking that bet, I'm sure some are already doing so. Doubt it has an effect, however, other than negative (if anything).

[mcanerin]

I know that Google uses Google Analytics, and so is capable of measuring what links are linked on, what location of the SERP they were clicked on, and whether someone immediately hit the back arrow, did a different search or stopped searching (because they presumably found what they wanted).

I'd be astounded if that information was not used by Google to influence rankings.

But with approximately 6000 searches per second, I think the ability for a few individuals to influence anything is highly unlikely. The sheer amount of aggregate information Google has at it's disposal would totally overwhelm any attempts at influencing usage data for anything but the longest of long tail keywords and searches, IMO

It would be better and easier to simply build a site that people wanted to visit of their own accord, no?

Ian

[Randy]

Yeah, just think about all of those Owned PC's out there that have spyware and malware running in the background. Many of those networks have a million or more computers at their disposal, which usually get used nowadays to send out spam.

Thing is that it couldn't be a one-shot kind of thing because it would be incredibly easy to spot. Without months of the same behavior that slowly built up to a raging crescendo it would look incredibly fake. As would too much sameness between the visits.

Even if it were done I rather doubt it would be any type of short term advantage.

[ogormask]

Well its just like when every one cried out that when search wiki rolled out rankings would be turned on their head. Gee that looks to be the case. A few dozen people across the country with nothing better to do put my site up or down and now it either is the number one site or will never be seen again? Considering the million factors that go into ranking adding a single new factor isnt going to drastically alter the algorithm.

[bwelford]

I think usage data as a whole is some of the best data there is to show what web pages visitors find useful and relevant. The spamming possibilities here are probably more easily detected than those that are involved in detecting spurious links created to influence pagerank.

I'm hoping Google will soon be incorporating user data, if it has not done so already. As Ian said they can get it in masses a variety of ways and the Toolbar is only one of these.