Does Google like a sticky site?

& how to retain visitors

[annej]

This got lost in another thread so I thought it might merit a thread of it's own.

Brett suggested

Go on a proactive visitor retention program. Make your site more sticky to the visitors you have.

I have a couple of questions.

First, is there evidence that Google gives a sticky site more weight in the serps?

Second, how does one make a site more sticky?

I know good navigation helps.

I also try make sure the first paragraph in an article catches the readers interest. I also put it in bold in hopes that skimmers will notice it.

But at the same time I have my AdSense units well placed which probably decreases stickiness. I can't really change this as it is my main source of income.

I'd like to hear people's thoughts on this topic.

[tama]

Yes Google likes sticky sites. It is written in their Patent Application.

[amygrech]

Is a sticky site, one that's designed to draw visitors in & keep them coming back often? Please clarify.

Thanks!

Amy

[annej]

It is written in their Patent Application

Thanks, now I see where the idea came from. I'm guessing we don't know if this is used in their algo yet then. But of course it doesn't hurt to be ready.

Amy, My understanding was that sticky relates to how long a visitor stays on the site with each visit. You may be right though. Tama, can you help us on this?

I am wondering how sticky a site needs to be. Obviously made for AdSense sites are not at all sticky. People will move on as quickly as possible. But even on legitimate sites a lot of people surf in and out after just a glance.

[Johan007]

The only way Google can do this is via Google Analytics, toolbar and AdSense. I dont think Google is doing it becuase of this IMO

[caveman]

Actually I'm relatively sure that this is a metric used by at least some of the SE's. They want to provide the best SERP's they can. One way of doing that would be to use available data to assess user satisfaction with the site(s) just clicked thru to.

However, "stickiness" may not be the best way of looking at it. "Satisfaction" may be a better way.

In some categories, satisfaction may be measured effectively by stickiness (simply stated as more pageviews). In other categories, however, users may only need to view several pages before getting the info or result that they need. The SE's would want a way to determine therefore not just pages viewed (if they care about that at all), but satisfaction with pages viewed, whether the number of pages viewed is two or two hundred.

If I were a SE, I might watch to see what sites surfers return to the SERP's from for a given query, and what sites keep their visitors, or send them elsewhere. When a searcher clicks on a listing in the SERP's and quickly returns to the SERP's, it's a pretty good bet that the visited site did not offer what the searcher was looking for, for that particular query. ;-)

[annej]

If I were a SE, I might watch to see what sites surfers return to the SERP's from for a given query, and what sites keep their visitors, or send them elsewhere

I hope the people running search engines are as sensible as you are. I especially like your including the send them elsewhere. I know I list relevant books and sites when I write an article. I'd hate to think that might be hurting my stickiness.

How do they track return visitors? Can they tell how many come in from bookmarks?