Usability optimization and the effect on rankings

[chrisv1963]

I optimized one of my websites for usability and now I'm seeing a negative effect in Google Analytics.

The first thing I did was improve the download speed of the website. Then I made navigation through the website a lot easier to let visitors find what they want instantly.

The effect on analytics is negative though. Less time on site, less average pageviews (less clicks, because it is easier to find things now) and an increased bounce rate.

Does anyone that made similar improvements with a similar effect on average pageviews, time on site and bounce rate have an idea of what the effect on rankings might be?

[goodroi]

Usually when I have made usability changes to a website it leads to higher rankings. This is because the site looks more professional and starts getting recommended by bloggers and linked to more often from newspapers and other authority sites.

I haven't done this since Panda so I can't say what if any impact these usage metrics will have on rankings.

[netmeg]

First of all, how long ago did you make your changes?

Second of all, have you seen any changes in your traffic, rankings or conversions (if you have them) ?

I wouldn't worry so much about the Analytics stuff. There's a lot that Google gets wrong, but in my experience, they've been getting much better at figuring out true engagement with a site.

For example, we moved an ecommerce client into a new platform, and I freaked temporarily because his pageviews went way down. Then I remembered we went from a seven page checkout process to a ONE page checkout. D'uh. Sales are up. Conversion rates are up. Ranking have started to really jump lately. But if you compare to last year, visits are about the same, pageviews are a lot lower and so is time on site.

I've got sites myself where people come to the home page, see what they want, and leave. HUGE bounce rates. But that page ranks for pretty much every even remotely related keyword (and a bunch that aren't related) and just keeps getting more and more traffic - because it has what the user wants, it gets emailed and liked and tweeted and bookmarked, and I gotta think that Google must be paying attention to that stuff.

Check your traffic and your bottom line before you start worrying if you have a real problem.