Can Queries (and Clicks) Influence Rankings?Visual results from a Google experiment

Rand Fishkin, CEO + Co-founder, SEOmozAugust 2011

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlOriginal post here: https://plus.google.com/u/1/111294201325870406922/posts/2FmCppTwREj?hl=en

I Ran an Experiment

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlOriginal screenshot here: http://minus.com/ljwYzm

Trying to Change These SERPs:

Note everywhereist.com ranks #4 in the original

(taken August 3rd at 1:40pm Pacific)

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlTweet post: http://twitter.com/#!/randfish/status/98857476040040450

Also Promoted on Twitter

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlScreenshot with that timestamp: http://minus.com/llEnnQ

Results After 2 Hours

At 3:40pm (2 hours later), the site is now

ranking #3 and #4.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlBit.ly stats for each can be seen here: https://bitly.com/twtrblev+ and here: https://bitly.com/gptrblev+

Total Clicks on the URLs

Google Plus URL

Twitter URL

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlBit.ly stats for each can be seen here: https://bitly.com/twtrblev+ and here: https://bitly.com/gptrblev+

Google Analytics Data

Note the higher bounce rate and shorter time on site due to the nature of the traffic

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlScreenshot of 1 day later here: http://minus.com/ll2NDQ

This Change Only Lasted ~18 Hours

Back down to ranking #4 by 9:28am on August 4th.

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlScreenshot of this result (from Monday) here: http://min.us/mcLZeu6

But then… It Changed Again?!

Whoa! Suddenly ranking #1 and #2 (~48 hours after falling back to position #4)

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlScreenshot of this result (from Monday) here: http://min.us/mcLZeu6

Maybe it was just on-page changes?

Note use of words “travel” and “blog” in this post’s intro.

And their conspicuous lack of existence in this post (which

was at the top when the experiment began)

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlMartin MacDonald of OMD explains here: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/whoa-can-query-volume-directly-influence-rankings

Others Have Shown Sustained Volume Creates Sustained Rankings

http:/googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/06/our-new-search-index-caffeine.htmlIf search volume can influence queries the way Martin suggested, it clearly takes a higher quantity, more diversity or perhaps other factors than what I could trigger in my experiment.

At no time before, during or after the experiment has the site ranked in the top 1,000 results (first

100 pages) for “travel blog”

Conclusions?• Still mostly TBD, in my opinion• Google doesn’t seem to be easily manipulated by a few hundred queries• CTR may have impacted rankings here, but it could just have been the new blog post containing the keywords in a prominent position.• Google+ Wow! Drove more than 50% of the volume that Twitter did. That’s remarkable in and of itself, given that I have <1/3rd the “followers” on GG+ as Twitter.