Alex Koby
In the ever-dynamic world of SERP rankings, there is a common understanding among marketers that a direct correlation exists between search rankings and conversion rates.
Sufficed to say, the higher your ranking on search engines are, the better visibility you have, and the better your chances are of converting higher. And why not? Getting ahead of your industry competitors gives you a better chance of being the so-called “chosen one” for your target market. Not to mention the good ‘ol Google-age wisdom — nobody looks past page 3.
While the former finds itself in the “captain obvious” school of thought, if you will, one would think higher engagement = higher rankings is also on the same boat.
To this day, search marketers and webmasters have only speculated on whether or not Google directly attributes engagement when it comes to SERP rankings. Google would have to incorporate data from Google Analytics in order to use more advanced user engagement metrics such as average time on site and conversion rate in the form of goal completions.
Although Google can certainly use this data, not every website uses Google Analytics, and many webmasters are skeptical on whether Google uses data that cannot be measured for every indexed website.
For one, Google luminary Matt Cutts himself seemingly denied outright in 2010 that Google Analytics data (which as we know measures engagement primarily) is accounted for at all when it comes to Google’s search algorithm.
Neither Confirmed, Nor Denied
Fast forward to today, it is perhaps a fair assumption that Google had a change of heart on the matter as Google Analytics took off and played an increasingly paramount part of the search ranking game. Despite the fact that many marketers subscribe to this theory, Google has neither confirmed, nor denied this speculation.
The lack of confirmation or denial however, does not necessarily disprove this popular theory. After all, Google has scattered a few crumbs for us to follow the secret path. For instance, the Google Analytics Terms of Service gives Google the freedom to use that data:
"Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its privacy policy (located at www.google.com/privacy.html), information collected in Your use of the Service."
If you look closely at their privacy policy, a few more pieces of the puzzle are laid out for curious cats like us:
“We collect information about the services that you use and how you use them, like when you watch a video on YouTube, visit a website that uses our advertising services, or view and interact with our ads and content.”
“We use the information we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones, and to protect Google and our users. We also use this information to offer you tailored content – like giving you more relevant search results and ads.”
“We use information collected from cookies and other technologies, like pixel tags, to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services. One of the products we use to do this on our own services is Google Analytics.”
So Why Deny?
One of Google’s pet peeves is a poor user experience. Google had always tweaked their algorithm for the benefit of the user and fought many a battle with over zealous spammy marketers trying to out-game them.
Picture pesky search marketers (not like you or I of course unless you’re a spambot or use practices I’m about to list here) employing black hat tactics to automate clicks, time on site, and conversion numbers. Creating bots to crawl your page to click, stay on the site, and convert would not benefit a business if that information was not tied to a real, living lead. BUT, if that “conversion” held value in that the conversion boosted rankings, the tactic makes sense. The point is, Google does not want to open the Pandora’s box of SERPs.
Besides, Google has never explicitly disclosed any aspect of their algorithm. If they were to use data from Google Analytics in search rankings, they certainly would not divulge that information.
If Google publicly disclosed that data from Google Analytics factored into search rankings, search marketers would have a field day. Link farms and keyword stuffing may be dead, but such an announcement would give Google a host of other problems. And let’s face it, as inbound marketers we care about the value we can offer and would definitely be enraged by spammy sites overtaking our hard-earned ranking spots. As search engine users ourselves, we wouldn’t want that either.
Testing The Theory
Since Google sets limits on what information is available when it comes to organic traffic and rankings, it is difficult to test the theory. The closest one can get to mapping out the possibilities of this theory is through Google Adwords simply because of the access to and availability of data. Noticing a matching trend in a couple of our own clients, we decided to take a closer look and piece the puzzle together.
We began by comparing results from monthly reports provided by Google Adwords and organic traffic data we have acquired through SEMRush.
As seen on the image above, clicks were down, impressions were down, CTR was steady except for a drop in the month of May, but conversion rate saw a steady increase between February and May.
Upon further examination of the data, we took a look at which campaigns within the month of May contributed the most to the overall increase in conversion rate.
The Roof – Repair Ad Group saw the most conversions at a whopping 21.43%. The same success is mirrored in the Keyword Campaigns:
Seen above, “roofing repair” had a conversion rate of 21.74%. When the May Adwords results are compared with the May SEMRush data for the month, things get interesting:
Almost every SEO win for the month was for a long-tail phrase including “roofing repair.” At the time, we were not looking for such a connection, but given the correlation from this data, we decided to look at some other clients of ours to see if a similar pattern occurred.
Looking at another client in a different industry, we witnessed the same trend. Since conversion rate appeared to have the highest correlation to increased ranking for related keywords, we took the two Adwords campaigns with the highest conversion rate:
From our top two conversion rates, rooftop + pipe + support has higher clicks, impressions, and CTR. The only outperforming keyword was “duct supports”. The following image shows the top organic keyword wins for this client as extrapolated from SEMRush:
From this list, we see “Pipe support” as one of the top SEO wins of the month. This is the closest keyword to our high performing Adwords keyword “rooftop + pipe + support.” But let’s isolate keywords specifically related to rooftop+pipe+support and “duct supports.”
Keywords related to duct support saw the highest keyword success between the two. Rooftop+pipe+support had significantly showed better clicks, impressions, and CTR, but “duct supports” had the better conversion rate.
The Quality Update
It is not uncommon for Google to push algorithm updates here and there a couple times throughout the year. Earlier this year webmasters noticed significant fluctuations in their Google rankings. While Google denied a change to their major filters (such as Panda or Penguin), they have alluded to conducting what Mr. Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Land dubbed, “The Quality Update”.
While Google, in true Google fashion, remained vague on what this update entailed, it pointed to a core change in its algorithm that affects how “quality signals” are assessed. This update was implemented around the same time we witness the above trend in our data.
Going back to our theory, one can argue that the sudden (and seemingly unexplainable) spike, was perhaps brought about by this algorithm update. If this is in fact the case, this supports the argument that “engagement” is an important determining factor of Google’s SERP rankings. In theory, site clicks and conversion rates are among the factors that make up engagement.
Coincidence or Correlation?
The Theory of Escalating Engagement suggests that user engagement metrics do more than indirectly affect search rankings. At this point in time, Search Engine Optimization, and User Experience Optimization have been thought to be similar but separate fields that work together to create a better online experience, leading to higher conversion rates. If proven true, the Theory of Escalating Engagement will enable digital marketers to have a better and clearer grasp on how these fields intersect and compound upon one another to not only gain more site conversions, but also boost online visibility in the process. Think of the “chicken or the egg” scenario, solidified both ways.
Until Google lets us take a peek on the inner makings of their algorithm, we will all be making “intelligent guesses” on how to stay afloat the SERP game. The one thing to keep in mind, however, is that at the end of the day, Google cares most about the product experience of its users. If you are focused on quality and value, you will be found by your audience, soar above the SERP rankings, no matter how and which comes first.
In the meantime, I’d love to hear your take on the matter! Have you seen a direct connection between higher user engagement and search rankings?
