Evidence Mounts that Click-through Rates Affect Ranking

Although most of us in the industry already knew (without even a hard proof) that a click-through rate does affect the ranking of a site, we now have the proof.

Wall Street Journal has obtained an integral Google document via the U.S. Freedom of Information Act that says the Google indeed uses click-through rate as a ranking factor.

Here’s the most important bit from the document.

“In addition, click data (the website links on which a user actually clicks) is important for evaluating the quality of the search results page. As Google’s former chief of search quality Udi Manber testified:

“The ranking itself is affected by the click data. If we discover that, for a particular query, hypothetically, 80 percent of people click on Result No. 2 and 10 percent click on Result No. 1, after a while we figure out, well, probably Result 2 is the one people want. So we’ll switch it.”

Google’s co-founder and the president of the parent company, Alphabet, also confirmed that apart from helping them understand that whether or not their search algorithms are providing users with high-quality results, the click data is also important for many other purposes, including ranking well on the search engine results page (SERP).     

What Do Click-through Rates Mean for Your Business?

Site owners are already trying their best to get more traffic to their site using various means. So their second most important goal has always been getting more clicks and the first being, well, increasing profits for their or their client’s business.

But those who didn’t prioritize click-through rates, now is the time to do so. That said, there’s no doubt that the basic rules remain the same, like trying to get a higher position on the search engine result pages, getting featured snippet status etc. Click-through SEO is about giving the users more reasons to click on your website. Like writing attractive titles and page descriptions, showing positive reviews on your listing, etc. If you’re interested in improving your website to better market your company, feel free to call Envoca today.