Behavioral factors are an inherent element of SEO based on user behavior on our website. They determine the degree of matching the target website to the expectations of its visitors. We cannot say exactly what exactly improves these aspects, but we know that they are primarily for people and not for crawlers as in the case of technical SEO. So what are behavioral factors and how do they affect a page’s position in organic search results? We advise!
Behavioral factors – what are they?
Behavioral factors are elements that make your website more visible in SERPs. Specific aspects depend on the specifics of the industry in which we operate and the specific key phrase. According to Paraphrase-Online specialists, the position is influenced by, among others:
– time spent on the site,
– repeatability of inputs,
– number of subpages per session,
– bounce rate,
– CTR of the selected keyword and the entire domain.
It is also worth mentioning that behavioral factors make it possible to distinguish a valuable website for both users and Google robots from a website that is only properly optimized. That’s not all, because behavioral factors are distinguished by resistance to all BHS (Black Hat SEO) practices, which means that the website is more protected against the imposition of special filters by search engines.
The bounce rate shows the exact percentage of visits to the website that resulted in a maximum of one page view. According to Google’s standards, the more time the user spends on the website, the better it is for the internet user.
It cannot be clearly determined whether search engines treat the bounce rate as a priority element, but based on many years of experience and SEO analysis of websites, we can say that it is a very important factor. It will allow us to make sure that the domain meets the expectations of users in terms of attractiveness.
Controversy related to behavioral factors – what does it look like in practice?
There is a lot of controversy around behavioral factors. Google does not take them into account in the first place, because they can be easily manipulated, as the direct competitor of the Mont Blanc giant – Yandex – was painfully convinced. Well, for some time its owners were strongly influenced by CTR from SERPs, which resulted in companies creating or buying thousands of bots entering specific key phrases into the search engine and clicking the appropriate link to generate traffic.
We should also remember that behavioral factors are not always the correct determinant. This is due to the fact that often shorter time spent on the website means a friendly shopping path (e.g. in the e-commerce industry), but when reading a blog, the opposite is true, which would make it difficult for algorithms to recognize the value of a website based solely on behavioral factors.
On-site and off-site behavioral factors – the official factors influencing the ranking of your website on Google
The official factors influencing the ranking of your website on Google are primarily on-site and off-site aspects. The first of them (on-site) are responsible for the interpretation of a specific site by indexing robots. The second (off-site) is not directly related to the site, but thanks to activities within it, they affect the position in SERPs.
On-site factors
– navigation;
– content quality;
– site structure.
On-site factors are primarily aspects influencing the user experience, which is achieved through the use of a given website. In this case, it is worth paying attention to internal linking to facilitate navigation through the site and content, which should bring substantive value to Internet users.
Off-site factors
– external link-bulding,
– mentions of the site or brand on other pages,
– creating sponsored articles with a dofollow link (external link-building element).
Off-site factors are based on external linking with a dofollow link. All sponsored articles and viral content are welcome if they have a specific value and arouse user interest.
Behavioral factors and SEO – summary
Behavioral factors are indirect aspects used to verify the position of a selected domain in SERPs. Google takes note of them, but they are not prioritized in terms of SEO. If we were to define one behavioral coefficient analyzed by Google – it would be the CTR. Its size is analyzed on a case-by-case basis and very often compared with other sites with a similar position in SERPs.
