Bounce Rate Vs Time On Page For Best Ranking on SERPs

[WeBuyHousesInCT]

All, I have a question I would love your input on.

I have seen similar questions but none that actually with a decent answer.

I have a website and I have optimized it.

What is better for SERP rankings?


open in new page.

I know that if a user browses my site and stays on my site long, google will favor the site.
I also know that if a user clicks through several pages of my site, google also likes this.
But which one is better?

Here is why I am asking.

In order to keep a user on my page longer, I have put my links to other pages of my site lower down my website.
However, the lower you put the links, the more people will drop off the site before reaching those links.
I could put a very tempting to click link above the fold and I am sure over 90% of users will click the link before even scrolling down.
This will result in a low bounce rate, but a very small time on page.

I am not really interested in answers that tell me "you need to find a compromise between the two, by putting the link somewhere in the middle", Yes that is obvious. I would love to know your opinion on which one you think is more important and why.

Also, if you have clever tricks to go around this that would be great too. Tricks.. you ask?
I mean, by opening a link in a new tab, thus you are technically still on the original page (1) while you browse page 2.

Any thoughts on that "trick" as well?

Thank you for your input,

Dixie.

[keyplyr]

Hi Dixie and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

" opening a link in a new tab" irritates me; not enough to leave the site, but I usually remember the site doing that and I think it is poor webmastership. This is especially evident in mobile where I would have multiple tabs all open, one behind another. Eventually the browser behaves poorly.

I stopped thinking about these little SEO "tricks" a long time ago and just use what's the most friendly to the user. I try to put myself in their position and how I would like to navigate a website.

[martinibuster]

I know that if a user browses my site and stays on my site long, google will favor the site.

I also know that if a user clicks through several pages of my site, google also likes this.

Welcome to WebmasterWorld. :)
I don't mean to offend you by pointing this out but you are 100% wrong on both counts. You believe you know. But you do not know. You have been misinformed.

The people who taught you that information are ignorant. They do not know how to read patents or research papers. Those theories are a misunderstanding of quality control patents.

Those algorithms are a process of determining if users are unsatisfied by noting sessions where a user clicks back to Google and chooses another site. The algorithm examines what the other site that did satisfy the user offers. This data is then used for two purposes:

1. To better understand what the most popular user intent is for a specific search query

2. To help improve the algo by making it show sites that satisfy the most users most of the time.

None of the above is about demoting or promoting sites. It's about understanding user intent. It's quality control. That's it.

This is what I mean by saying that you do not know. You only think you know. My advice to you is to not believe any information that other site teaches because it is obvious they are unreliable.

Good luck,

Roger Montti