Search engines have one goal: to provide their users with the best search results for their search queries. After all, Google is “just” a service provider that must meet its customers’ expectations to remain successful in the long term. Therefore, the search engine giant is constantly working on improving its algorithm, constantly seeking factors that provide reliable information about the relevance of search results. The signals that users themselves “send” are crucial for Google search.
Big influence of user signals on Google ranking
The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is constantly evolving, and one of the newer elements gaining importance is user signals as a ranking factor on Google. User signals refer to the behavior of users on a website and how they interact with search results. These signals provide Google with important information about how relevant, useful, and trustworthy a website is to users. Learn more about how user signals influence search rankings here:
1. Click-through rate (CTR)
Google measures how often a search result is clicked. The simple calculation: The more clicks, the better a search result appeals to searchers, as it appears more relevant. Of course, pages listed high in the rankings naturally have a higher click-through rate than lower-ranking pages. Therefore, the click-through rate should not be overestimated. However, it can cause ranking changes if a lower-ranking page receives more clicks than a higher-ranking one.
2. Time spent on the page
The time spent on a page tells Google how relevant it is for searchers. The longer the time spent on a page, the more informative, entertaining, or at least interesting a page appears to be. However, this data should also be treated with caution. In individual cases, a long time spent on a page can also indicate that it’s particularly confusing, requiring a search for the desired information. However, it can generally be assumed that most visitors won’t even bother with such chaotic pages.
3. Bounce Rate
The bounce rate tells Google what percentage of visitors who reach a website via a search engine result page (SERP) leave the website on the landing page. These visitors, therefore, generate only one page impression. This user signal highlights the complexity of assessing user behavior. Simply classifying a page with a high bounce rate as irrelevant would be simplistic.
People who Google are often looking for very specific information. Once they find it on the page they clicked on, they leave satisfied without further interaction. Therefore, the bounce rate can increase even if the visitor is satisfied. If they don’t find the information they’re looking for, they also leave the page and return to the search results. This also increases the bounce rate.
Return-to-SERP rate
More interesting than the bounce rate alone is the return-to-SERP rate, which measures how often a user returns to the search results from a clicked page. If the user then clicks on another search result, this signals to Google that they obviously didn’t find what they were looking for on the previous page.
Due to the analysis issues described above, Google likely links the bounce rate to a time reference. Only visitors who leave particularly quickly, for example, within ten seconds, are included in the bounce rate value. This excludes visitors who immediately found what they were looking for and therefore left the website on the landing page.
4. Social Signals
Social signals are a fairly reliable indicator of relevance. These include posts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, as well as their interactions. On social networks, only compelling content gets liked, shared, and commented on. Therefore, the more often links to a particular page appear there, the more helpful, interesting, or entertaining it must be.
For Google, the intensity of use of one’s own social media profiles is also an indicator of the topicality of an internet offering.
5. Pages per session
This signal indicates how many pages a user visits during a session on a website. A higher number of pages per session indicates that users continue to browse for further relevant content on the page. Google may view this as a sign of a comprehensive and useful website.
6. Repeat visits
When users return to a website regularly, this can indicate valuable and trustworthy content. Google may view repeat visits as a sign of established authority and high user satisfaction.
User signals can be optimized in many ways.
To send Google optimal user signals, real added value is essential. But to offer this, you need to know your target audience and understand their needs. Of course, good content and a user-friendly website can also positively influence the user signals discussed above. This type of search engine optimization is even explicitly encouraged by Google, as it improves content and usability without resorting to dubious methods.
Here’s how to optimize the individual factors:
1. Increase click rate
A page only has a few seconds in the search results to convince a searcher to visit it. The page title and the maximum two-line description ( meta description ) take up the most space. Each website operator usually determines these themselves, which allows for considerable creative freedom. Because the title and description are the first points of contact with a page, they should be worded carefully.
The title should convey the page’s content as concisely as possible in a few words. Therefore, the website name should be placed at the end, not at the beginning. The title element should be no longer than 55 characters (excluding spaces), otherwise it will be truncated.
The description specifies exactly what the visitor can expect. It is a brief synopsis or preview of the content. For optimal wording, it helps to follow the AIDA principle: Attention, Interest, Desire, and Action. Depending on the industry, special characters such as checkmarks and asterisks can draw attention to the description. The description will be truncated if it exceeds 156 characters (including spaces).
2. Increase length of stay
Anyone who provides relevant content doesn’t really have to worry about dwell time. However, there are a few small adjustments you can make to maximize the results. Generally speaking, more content also requires more time. Short articles like those in “Bild” don’t retain visitors for very long. A certain article length can therefore be beneficial, provided the text consistently provides usable information and not just hot air. Anyone who artificially inflates their articles will likely reap the opposite effect, and users will abandon their site.
Paragraphs and subheadings
To prevent long texts from discouraging and alienating visitors, they should be well-structured with paragraphs and subheadings and enriched with images. Photo galleries, infographics, statistics, etc., can further increase dwell time. The most important information should always be at the top of an article. This way, the reader immediately recognizes that it’s worth reading on.
Demand interaction
Blogs should encourage their readers to interact—first and foremost, of course, by leaving comments. Comments can be encouraged by actively encouraging them at the end of an article. This shouldn’t be a general request, however, but rather a specific question, for example, about personal experiences with a topic.
Support via live chat
Another way to increase dwell time and simultaneously reduce the bounce rate is to offer support to your visitors. This works particularly well with live chat. One click is all it takes for the visitor to contact the site operator. Online shops, in particular, benefit from this service, which increases the likelihood of a purchase.
In principle, however, such live chats are suitable for anyone willing to answer visitors’ questions about the website’s content.
Instead of a live chat, you can also display a message box and answer questions via email. Alternatively, a forum where like-minded people can exchange ideas on a topic can increase the length of stay.
3. Reduce bounce rate
Bounce rates are always high when searchers don’t find what they’re expecting. A good title and description are, therefore, the first step toward a low bounce rate. After that, the page itself must be compelling.
As already explained, visitors who bounce particularly quickly are the most problematic. This reflex is often triggered by pages that load too slowly, regardless of their content. Long loading times are doubly detrimental: They themselves are a negative factor for Google rankings, but the increased bounce rate also drags the page down. Optimizing page speed is therefore important for several reasons.
The right first impression
First impressions are also important: If a page appears chaotic to visitors, they’ll quickly return to the search results without further consideration. The same applies to poor design. A clear design with a good structure that guides the visitor’s eye is recommended. The page layout should be intuitive, so they know where to find something within seconds. Clear categorization also helps with orientation.
Easy navigation
Particular attention should be paid to navigation. Only if it is clearly visible and easy to use will visitors continue to visit other pages on the website. By placing internal links to further information or related articles at the end of an article, you can entice visitors to visit additional pages, which significantly reduces the bounce rate.
Pages that require sensitive interactions—that is, those that want to sell something or request the submission of personal data—must be designed with particular care. Visitors must trust them to take action. Design and clarity are particularly important here. Furthermore, visitors should be transparently informed about why data is being requested and how it is being processed. This reduces skepticism and builds trust.
4. Increase social media interactions
To increase visibility on social networks and traffic from them, you should make things as easy as possible for your visitors. If there are social buttons at the end of an article, texts will be shared significantly more often. After all, just a few clicks are enough. However, if the visitor has to laboriously write a recommendation to their friends and followers on the network themselves, the article must be of outstanding quality for them to take the time to do this.
Competitions
Also popular are contests that require a person to like a Facebook page or tweet with a link to the contest to participate. The lower the hurdle, the more attractive the prizes and the higher the chance of winning, the more people are willing to participate.
Free consideration
Similar to entering a contest, social media activity can also be required for content approval. This is already done for additional offers such as free eBooks. In exchange for a tweet “as payment,” the eBook is available for free. With the WordPress plugin Social Locker, entire pages can be placed behind an “interaction barrier.” Only those who post, like, or share can read the entire article. In principle, this is a great way to achieve more interaction on social networks, but by no means suitable for every industry. A less social media-savvy target audience is likely to be put off by such requirements, which in turn negatively impacts the bounce rate and dwell time.
Conclusion: Content and usability are the be-all and end-all
Optimizing user signals has become a crucial factor not only for improving visibility and search engine rankings but also for providing a better user experience. The way users interact with your website says a lot about how relevant, useful, and trustworthy your content is. The multitude of user signals, from CTR to dwell time to bounce rate, provide valuable insights that help search engines like Google assess the quality of your website.
The foundation for successful user signal optimization lies in creating high-quality content tailored to the needs and interests of your target audience. A clear and intuitive website, fast loading times, mobile optimization, and interactive elements all help improve the user experience and encourage user engagement. By listening to user feedback and continuously working on improving your website, you can increase user satisfaction while positively impacting your search engine rankings.
The progressive evolution of search engine algorithms toward incorporating user signals demonstrates that search engine providers strive to provide their users with the best possible experience. This means that those who value high-quality content and a positive user experience will be rewarded in the long run. Optimizing user signals should therefore not only be viewed as a strategic approach to boosting search engine rankings, but as a fundamental step toward building a strong online presence and providing real value to users.