How does user behaviour signalled at Google affect rankings?

[followuk]

Hi,

Just a quick question.

How important are the signals received by Google on a websites user behaviour?

For example: Bounce Rate, Avg Time on site, # of pages viewed, Geo of user etc

Thanks.

[LesleyPaone]

I have my own views, but I would say very important. From what I have seen a site running GA that starts getting more traffic from other sources will raise its ranking in Google.

[KeriMorgret]

Google reps have said that the data from GA isn't used for ranking, and have specifically called out bounce rate as a very noisy metric. There are several good references in this Search Engine Roundtable post at http://www.seroundtable.com/google-bounce-rate-attacks-16203.html.