Traffic isn't a ranking signal

[fisicx]

Google said so:

https://twitter.com/googlewmc/status/1165905965482479616

You don't often get clear statements like this from the Googleplex.

 

[comperio]

of course traffic is not a signal, if you just mean "traffic" as in this tweet, which is a very general definition of any visitor visiting a website, including bots and what not.

what is a signal though, is "targeted traffic", in other words traffic that has a genuine even somehow remote interest in the landing page; this has been tested.

so no, do not send any traffic, send some form of traffic that is keen on browsing your site.

google is the master of counter-intelligence, so read every thing they publish with a grain of salt, and read between the lines.

 

[StevePoster]

JohnMu don't consider traffic as a ranking signal because it is too broad, irrelevant vs relevant, bounce rate vs avg duration of time in page.

 

[WhizzPeople]

Quality traffic KPIs like bounce rate, avg page per session, dwell time, etc. should be a good signal of better content. Thus these KPIs might be (weak) ranking factors.

 

[Clinton]

You don't often get clear statements like this from the Googleplex.

Google are known and proven liars when it comes to telling webmasters how their algo works (or when it comes to privacy or when it comes to other things for that matter).

Google's #1 job is not helping you rank, it's pumping out the misinformation needed to keep people from trying to game their system.

Do not rely on anything Google says! The best way to know what works is to do your own testing. If you don't have the resources to do that then rely on someone else's testing.

But not freaking Google's!

 

[fisicx]

Quality traffic KPIs like bounce rate, avg page per session, dwell time, etc

Not so sure you can say these are quality traffic KPIs. Suppose you have a page with your opening times, bounce will be high and dwell time low but the page meets the visitors needs so would rank high.

 

[fisicx]

Do not rely on anything Google says!

Indeed. It’s just that the tweet confirms what everyone else has been saying for a long time.