Inbound links – does the traffic matter at all??

[inhouseninja]

So we know that links from highly ranked websites, pages with high DA, PR etc, matter.  What about the traffic on these links?  Do Google and others look at the traffic on the links and factor that into the algorithm?  What do people think about this?

Just wondering about this as don’t see it talked about much….Thanks

[CodyWheeler]

Of course they take traffic into account. The more traffic a site has the higher the likelihood is that it is going to move up in the rankings. Some traffic is more valuable than others. If a site is getting a ton of traffic, but it's all just bouncing back to the previous page or bouncing back to the SERP, then that traffic isn't going to be as valuable as traffic that flows through and interacts with a site.

Do you mean do they rank pages based on how much traffic is flowing through from each link? Perhaps you could be more specific with your question and exactly what you mean by do they "look at traffic".

[EGOL]

I have never read or heard anyone talk about Google counting the traffic that flows through a link.  I wonder how well they can count it?

I would not bet very much money that this is a factor in the algo.

If you can get a link that delivers valuable traffic that is great.  Very few backlinks deliver significant amounts of traffic.  However, if you can get a link in an article on the nytimes.com website, or Slashdot.com or Wired.com the traffic flow can be amazing.

[MarieHaynes]

I would think that this hasn't been answered yet, because no one really knows.  The general consensus is that the traffic from these sites means nothing and I would tend to agree.

If traffic were a factor then it could be easily manufactured.  And just because a site has traffic it doesn't mean it is good.  One example would be a typo domain name.  It may get lots of type in traffic, but a link from this site wouldn't likely be any good.

So, my vote would be to say that no, site traffic has no bearing on how much help a link gives a website.

EDIT (LOL!  2 people answered while I was typing!)

[inhouseninja]

yes, thanks, I mean the traffic from specific links. e.g. How important is the traffic that flows down the links, or is the link itself all you need to worry about - even if there is Zero traffic from the link

[EGOL]

That's what happens when you type    s  l  o  w.

[MarieHaynes]

Haha...I didn't think it was that slow!  But hey...maybe you are just really fast!

[CodyWheeler]

To clarify - It's a popularity thing to me. It's not directly related to overall traffic, but if a site gets more traffic, it's going to be talked about more, linked to more, etc, which increases SEO.

That's what I was getting at. Guess I didn't make that clear