Time on site % effecting ranking?

[epatterson]

I have been hearing around (on this forum too), that the bounce rate is now more important than ever. In fact I have even heard that a few sites are being badly slapped for having a high bounce rate. Surely this would imply that for SEO that time on site % was a really important factor now.

If you have any thoughts on the topic I would love to know.

 

[djbaxter]

See http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5...te-post-panda-bounce-rate-ranking-signal.html

 

[epatterson]

Thanks alot I will give it a read and let you know what I think.

 

[victorm]

Turn clocks back to '09 I when I ran some before/after tests enabling and disabling Google Analytics on a page -> on a website with low visits, low bounce rate, no visible impact on rankings. On a website with high visits, high bounce rate -> drop in rankings with GA code on the page. Did it a few times over 4 months, enough to prove correlation. Causation is another story...
I would not use GA on any pages of mine if I have a choice - and I do (OWA, Piwik etc).
Moved a few customers from GA and Website Optimizer to Sitecatalyst (although the fees are unbelievable) over the years.

 

[djbaxter]

Sounds like superstitious thinking to me, i.e., limited correlation data leading to erropneous conclusion of causation.