Google Clickthroughs Rates Again

Worse, or better? Toolbar or no Toolbar?

[luckychucky]

I have to preface this by stating my ignorance, this is only a theory, I'm just curious and speculating, and looking for your opinions.

OK- When I check my SERPS for circa 100 keywords every morning at around 6am (if I'm sleepless, 3am) a whole slew of keywords will be down 1 or 2 positions. A few will be down 4, 5 or 9 positions, whatever. I don't get too upset because I know later in the day they'll ripen out and come back to normal.

If I check in again around, say, 9am, then noon, 3pm, 6pm and onward into the night (yes, sometimes I do. I can be that obsessed and surely I'm not alone) I see my SERPS improve. By the end of the day, most of that wide swath of 1 or 2-point declines has vanished, either to remain unchanged or even reverse to slightly upticked instead.

So, here's my speculation:
In the wee hours of night and morning, nobody is using G much. As the day dawns, volume dramatically increases, and G logs which sites get the most clickthroughs. And they don't need a G toolbar installed to do it. You're visiting Google's site, clicking on their site's pages. Nothing is easier to track than that, right? So all they need to do is apply the CTR (clickthrough rate) algos they use for AdSense and AdWords, and bingo, clickthroughs are a factor in determining your ranking.

Many apologies if I'm just now realizing what's been well-known forever.
Thanks

[Brett_Tabke]

We've had this discussion quite a few times.

The bottom line is: yes, we have to assume that Google factors click through rates into the algo.

The problem is determining when and where clicks effect the rankings.

Click through rate is high on #9, does that go up or down in the rankings?

Click through rate is high on #1 -- too high -- adwords are parked over there and not getting near enough clicks. Does #1 get booted?

Click through is high on #332 -- too high -- does it suffer a penalty for out of bounds clickier?

What about if it is a click in the toolbar vs a click through counter on the page.

What about the click through ratio between adwords sites and natural serps.

What if the page has a high adsense click through rate.

What about a low ctr on a #4. Does that get demoted or raised.

What about if....

What if...

Dizzy yet?