Brave Search Uses Click Data in Search Ranking Algorithm(seroundtable.com)
seroundtable.com
Brave Search Uses Click Data in Search Ranking Algorithm
https://www.seroundtable.com/brave-search-uses-click-data-ranking-algorithm-32319.html
8 comments
For anyone who knows search better: did Google decide to not use click data because it was hard to get good rankings, or did they not use it because it’s hard to monetize ads based on click data vs other metrics?
wat? Google used clicks ("navboost") since approximately forever, it's one of strongest signals for all major web search engines. I guess the better question is why they don't optimize ranking directly on clicks, why still bother with all that expensive human raters business... well optimizing for clicks helps but only until a certain point beyond which it starts hurting relevancy by overpromoting old popular results and clickbait. But as an ingredient in overall ranking in one way or another they and everyone else definitely use click data.
They may use return to SERP rate as a stronger signal. If a user views a page for under X seconds and then returns to search, one may assume that it wasn't relevant to their query. It acts similar to CTR as a ranking factor, but with an extra step.
"return to SERP" is click data in my opinion...
My only interpretation is that google is using a intentionally narrow definition that is misleading. I could certainly be wrong, but it seems preposterous to me to claim that google never uses information related to users clicking through to search results to inform search.
My automated testing says they do use click data...
As little as 3 clicks seems to be able to bring an obscure page much further up the rankings for an obscure query.
As little as 3 clicks seems to be able to bring an obscure page much further up the rankings for an obscure query.
> hard to monetize ads based on click data.
Google's main product, AdWords, directly monetizes click data by charging advertiser's per click. No click, no payment. Can't get much more direct than that.
Google's main product, AdWords, directly monetizes click data by charging advertiser's per click. No click, no payment. Can't get much more direct than that.
Odd bit to add. Almost every search engine almost certainly uses click data.