There’s been a lot of talk over the years (especially post Panda update) about whether or not Google uses bounce rate as a ranking signal. In fact, even this morning at SMX Advanced in the SEO Periodic Table session, the topic came up. Here are a couple of tweets from an attendee of that session:
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Cliff Karklin
@CliffyKOnline Bounce rates probably aren’t factored either. Doesn’t mean they aren’t important for UX @markmunroe #smx #11a
Follow @CliffyKOnline Cliff Karklin
@CliffyKOnline Overall bounce rate may not be important. But Google sure knows when users immediately go back to Google from your site #smx #11a
Apparently, Google’s Matt Cutts said flat out (via second-hand news) that Google does not use Bounce Rate. Danny Sullivan just tweeted:
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Danny Sullivan
@dannysullivan “Google doesn’t use bounce rate” @mattcutts told @tomschmitz yesterday, tom says #smx #11c
Common thinking seems to have been that bounce rate is not a ranking signal, but this could help put a stop (or at least add a major point of argument) to the debate.