Internet Marketing Short Course by WebEvolution

Andrey Baturin, January 21, 2019

Behavioral factors

- user actions on the resource and in the search engine results, which are evaluated and interpreted by search engines in order to establish satisfaction with the site. These factors have a major impact on ranking.

Previously, SEO experts called the main methods of website promotion under search queries and work to build up the link mass. About why these methods no longer work,.

What works? The approach to ranking the key search engines, Google and Yandex, has long shifted in favor of behavioral factors. What is it, how do these indicators affect the website promotion in the SERP?

Behavioral factors are divided into positive and negative.

List of negative indicators

Negative parameters include such behavior of visitors to the resource, which leads to a decrease in its positions.

• High bounce rate. The person went to the web page and left it after no more than 15 seconds. Refusal to refuse discord: perhaps the guest immediately saw the information of interest? But more often there is a situation where the content of the page simply did not satisfy the interest of the visitor.
• Return to search results. The user can spend more time on the page, but if he then redirects to the search results, this is a red flag. This means that the user did not find what he was looking for and is forced to turn to the search engine links again.

List of positive PF

Traditionally, positive factors are those that help a site get high marks from search engines.

This behavior includes:

1. Good attendance. A very common and most impressive factor. The more people come to you, the better it affects your ranking. Not only the number of people is taken into account, but also the number and variety of sources. They can be search engines, social networks, partner resources (except for affiliates), forums, maps, links on other sites, review platforms, etc.
2. Length of stay on the page. The guest lingers for 15 seconds or longer: great, the algorithm perceives this as interest in the content and the portal itself.
3. Internal transitions. When he likes the resource and provides the information he is looking for, the user begins to study not only the login page, but also other sections. He follows the navigation chain, is interested in recommended content and internal links, and uses in-site search. Great, it improves the rankings a lot.
4. Viewing depth. It is not equal to the internal transitions and the duration of the visit. Rather, it is a combination of them. A person can superficially open several pages, click on links. But if he reads the contents of many sections of the portal to the end, this is an even greater plus in the piggy bank of bonuses.
5. Adding pages to favorites, bookmarks. Yes, this is also found by search engines and taken into account. Such behavior is noticed when the user visits the resource many times, while he comes not through the search, but from the selected page saved in the bookmarks.
6. Attractive snippet. This is the text portion displayed after the link to the resource in the search results. Usually formed from the content of the description meta tag. So, if there are a lot of clicks on a snippet, then the description is tempting for users. Fine!
7. Direct transitions. When a person comes to our resource not by request “order a website in St. Petersburg”, but by “webevolution”, this is a direct visit. Why is it good? Because it shows how the user distinguishes the site and the company from many others, trusts, wants to receive information right here.
8. User route map. Algorithms see the movement of the cursor across the screen, navigation and movement of the guest from the statistics data. For example, from the Yandex web browser. The user's path shows what interested him on the resource. Analysis of this behavior helps prevent PF wrapping.
9. Number of open tabs. Let's say a person reads an article or views a section with services and goods. He wants to know more and opens several tabs to see each page in sequence. This demonstrates his involvement and interest, which is, of course, good for the site.

And the last is the distribution of materials. If you've read an article on our blog and shared it on social networks, or just sent a link to a friend via messenger, you've improved our behavioral factors! The more users are recruited who post or share content, the more useful it is. This means that the resource is worthy to take a higher place in the search results.

The main user metrics are also divided into external, that is, those actions that the visitor performs directly in the search, and internal - characterizing human behavior on the resource itself.

External factors

There are fewer of them. These indicators include:

• CTR is the click-through rate of a link to a website in the SERP.
• One click on the results and go to the resource.
• Returning to the results of the issue.
• "Final" click, after which the person does not return to the search.

Everything is clear here: if the user liked the snippet, was interested in the proposal formulated in it, the title meets the expectations, then the site is worthy of attention. When a person visits a resource, but then returns to the issue again, it turns out that he did not find the expected information or was not satisfied with the offer, service, price. This is a minus.

Internal behavioral factors

These metrics reflect how the guest behaves on the pages of the website. These include:

• Duration of viewing.
• Depth (how many pages a person has visited).
• Session duration.
• Bounce rate. The guest spends less than 15 seconds on the site, does not go to other sections from the login page.
• Entry and exit points.
• Page traffic.
• Activity on the resource: likes, comments, questions.
• Content sharing, number of external links.
• Download speed.

These are factors that can and should be influenced in order to improve the site's performance, increase its rating by search engines.

In other words, when a guest:

• I chose your link in the search results and clicked on it;
• Spent more than 15 seconds on the site, flipped through the pages, stayed in the catalog, read blog materials;
• Or bought something, registered, called, used an online consultant, asked questions;
• Then I did not return to the search again, because I found what I was looking for,

Such a site deserves high marks in the eyes of algorithms, for which it will receive additional "points" when ranking for good PF. This pattern is a target for every resource.

How search engines analyze behavioral factors

There are too many pitfalls. Many indicators are conditional and are estimated taking into account the type of activity of the site, its type.

Let's say a person clicks on a link to a resource to find out the phone number and contact the company. He quickly finds contact information and calls. The portal satisfied his need for information, even though the guest quickly left him. The situation is similar with various services, for example, food delivery, taxi ordering. It seems that there is a refusal, but in fact it cannot be taken for refusal. Such sites do not drop in the SERP for short-term visits. This proves that the search engine takes into account the peculiarities of the resource and the typical behavior of people on it. Therefore, PFs and their interpretation are to some extent individual.

It is understandable how search engines track the user's path in the search results. How do they get data on behavior on the resource? It is clear that if the site is connected to Metrica, then Yandex is aware of everything that happens on the site. Google has the Toolbar, a freeware application. It has many analogues in the form of various "bars". In addition, there are other counters that can be installed on the site. Another question is how this data then gets to the search engines. But the fact is that Google and Yandex are monitoring user metrics. Site owners can view and analyze the status of these characteristics through Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica services.

There are techniques that suggest how to improve behavioral factors. A significant part of such methods is aimed at keeping the user on the site by various means. Let's move on to the analysis of methods.

How to improve behavioral factors

External PF

We need to work to ensure that the first information that the user receives about the site, he liked.

To do this, you need to perform the basic steps of the initial stage:

• Think over titles in detail. This also applies to the first level headings.
• Prescribe the URLs of the pages using the CNC principle That is, to make urls understandable.
• Work with snippets. Check out our publication about. Ideally, when the snippet includes a targeted request, it shows the customer's benefit, closes possible objections.

In addition, you need to promote your brand on the market. The more recognizable it is, the better the reputation, the more people will choose it in the SERP and follow the link. Helpful as well. We advise you to read the article for instructions on how to get on the map and why it is worth doing it.

Well, you can't give up the idea of \u200b\u200bworking with the link mass. Purchased link building is a tool that should be used with extreme caution. Otherwise, problems may appear. For example, if it turns out that the donor site has a bad reputation. We must strive to ensure that a high-quality and natural link mass is accumulated. To do this, we recommend developing SMM, posting in directories, on specialized forums. Additional traffic will go, which is also regarded as an improvement in behavioral factors.

Internal PF

You need to understand how behavioral metrics appear on the site, and then proceed to improve them.

Let's name the main aspects:

• Any web product requires constant development. Evaluate whether the design is relevant, whether the functionality is convenient, whether the content is useful. Working with a resource is always a plus. This is the main aspect of improving behavioral factors.
• Ensure the comfort of being on the resource. It is shaped by properties. Until you analyze from which pages and why the guest leaves the site, you cannot change this indicator. Therefore, view the Webvisor data.
• Come up with features that are interesting and useful to potential customers. Briefs, quizzes, games, questionnaires, calculators, recommendations, etc.
• Engage your visitors. Online consultations help, in the role of which chat bots are increasingly used. This also includes callback forms, comments, reviews.
• Encourage activity on the resource. Timeless reception - holding promotions, contests, providing promotional codes. This will be useful for both traffic and session duration.
• Optimize. This is important to keep your bounce rate down.
• Post quality, valuable, interesting, expert, literate, and unique content. A blog you read can have a great impact on the behavioral factors of the site. Also take care of regular updates to the news section. Diversify content: one text per field is not a warrior. Looking for photos, videos, graphics, animation, infographics, etc.
• Provide your site with easy navigation.
• Do not forget about the importance of linking: it is in your power to recommend materials to users using links and thus extend their stay on the resource.

How else to retain a user

Much depends on the type of site, subject matter, type of activity of the company. For online stores, the decisive factor is the USP and its benefits, for news portals - the freshness and relevance of the topic.

Therefore, we give only approximate tips that you can adapt to your niche.

Use:

1. Videos are a type of content that can convey a large amount of information in a short time. More and more people agree to watch the video rather than read it. It's hard to say who the videos won't work for. Stores can publish product reviews and instructions, companies can present services, tell about the team. Any textual material can be supplemented with a thematic video if it is filmed with high quality and useful for the user. Pay attention: if earlier “long” videos of 30-40 minutes received more attention, now it is better to keep within 5-10 minutes.
2. Photo carousels and sliders. Nice photos are nice to look at. In online stores, these can be images of goods, in companies that provide services - reports on events, cool photos from the life of the company, on interaction with partners. For construction companies - photos of finished projects, etc.
3. Useful longreads. A long article should be attractive in all respects: with valuable content, with a competent layout, with nice additions in the form of graphs and illustrations. A captivatingly written longread will keep the guest for a long time.
4. The content or functionality that engages in dialogue was mentioned above. So, an online consultant or a feedback order form is a must have of a modern website.
5. Interactive engaging content. Intriguing or funny tests, online quizzes, mini-games will definitely keep the visitor for a while. If they are catchy and made with high quality.
6. Sometimes guests are asked to fill out a questionnaire, write a review. Works when they are offered unobtrusively and in exchange for some kind of benefit. We have an article where they are named.

Invent new, most appropriate ways to prevent the quick departure of the visitor.

Wrap-up sanctions

On the Web, you can find services that offer artificial cheat of behavioral factors. Traffic is automatically pumped onto the resource, which creates the appearance of activity. However, search engines have long learned to recognize such manipulations, so you should not use them.

At Google, the Florida algorithm began to answer for this in 2004, then merged into Pandu. And since 2011, Yandex has rebuffed the markup when a campaign called "Clean Search" was launched.

Previously, search engines were punished for manipulations severely: you could get under the filter and stay there for several months, sometimes up to a year. Currently, cheats are quickly recognized. They do not count towards the site, so there is no point in them. In case of serious violations, search pessimization is possible. Therefore, it is better to direct efforts and budget to improve the resource, and not to manipulative tactics.

How to find things that can be improved

Sometimes we perceive our resource biasedly. It seems that the site cannot be better! The opinion of visitors is a relative concept, it does not always coincide with ours. There are surefire ways to tell you what needs to be improved to improve behavioral factors.

• Website technical audit. He will help identify the problems that concern. As a result, you get detailed recommendations for removing obstacles that hinder development.
• SEO audit. He, accordingly, will identify weaknesses in SEO optimization. The link mass, the correctness of the semantic core, SEO content, the elaboration of meta tags, and other aspects are analyzed. Following the recommendations of experts will increase the position of the site in the search results, which is not bad for behavioral metrics.
• A usability audit diagnoses where a site visitor is experiencing discomfort.
• Content audit is a content analysis. Sometimes not only the site, but also communities in social networks, other platforms where the company is represented. It will show how useful and engaging content you provide to users, what needs to be changed in order to grow up.
• Analysis of the causes of failures. One of the most pernicious factors, but you can work with it. The pages are examined, how relevant they are to the query, whether the keys were selected correctly, whether the content is useful, whether the USP is worked out. It is necessary to establish why the visitor quickly leaves the resource, and eradicate the lack. Perhaps the page just takes a long time to load. Too high a price for a product is a different kind of problem. A comparison with competitors is appropriate here.
• Site responsiveness. A resource that is not adapted for mobile devices loses about half of its traffic.

All events can be combined under one service - which can be ordered from WebEvolution.

How to improve the site's behavioral factors - characteristics that directly and very strongly affect the ranking?

First you need to find problem points, a comprehensive audit will help to do this. Next, you need to analyze the situation and eliminate the shortcomings. And if external factors do not really depend on you, then you will have to work carefully with the internal ones. This is a complex process related to how useful, user-friendly and attractive a resource is for users. What you should definitely not do is cheat behavioral factors. Because the site may suffer due to black or gray schemes, and then it will definitely not be among the leaders in the search results.

Hello everyone! Recently, they have become the object of lively interest of most webmasters. In general, at first I didn't take behavioral ones so seriously, but just out of curiosity I decided to improve this show on the Forex website. I did not use different services such as User to cheat behavioral factors, but I did it very simply. But more on that below.

As a result of small work on the site, its position in Yandex did not exactly jump, but upon careful analysis, I found that many queries grew in search results.

Not so long ago I put Yandex.Metrica on my website, but I don't use it much. I just decided to check if there is any positive impact on the ranking of the Yandex site on which the Metrica is installed. At the moment, several weeks have passed, but I cannot say that there are any serious shifts. Therefore, my main assistants in terms of analytics remain LiveInternet and Google Analytics (see,)

The first thing to understand is: Do behavioral factors affect rankings? To do this, I spied an interesting hack. The bottom line is that you can view the results without query-dependent factors. This is done as follows:

Enter the query "book". We see the following output:

That is, the site bookz.ru is in the first position, mirknig.com is in the second, and it went further there - ozon.ru, mdk-arbat.ru, etc.

Now we enter a query of the following form:

That is, we introduce some kind of abracatabra, and we look. We see that the issue is different. What have I done here?

In the first case (on the first screenshot), the issue of "books" upon request is shown, taking into account query-dependent factors. That is, taking into account all ranking factors, the bookz.ru site is in the first place in the Yandex search results. And without taking into account behavioral factors, bookz.ru does not rank first.

All this I mean is that today, roughly speaking, various factors have been “tied” to the SERP, due to which different pages are ranked differently. And links play an important role in these factors.

Often I hear people talk about link ranking going to die altogether. But I think that there are no grounds for such statements at all. Because a site cannot be ranked by internal factors alone, and external factors are links. And what alternative to external factors can be found, I cannot even come up with yet. Maybe one of you can tell me?

In addition, Yandex constantly “strangles” webmasters with various filters, many of which filter websites based on various kinds of linkbombings. And since there is a fight against spam links, it means that links as such still play a fairly significant role in ranking, although Yandex representatives say that it is not quite significant.

But since high page ranking depends not only on the quality of external links and internal factors, but also on behavioral ranking factors, then, given that today this is the trend of the season, it is necessary to work especially carefully on this factor.

So. Smoothly approached what was initially discussed. What are behavioral factors? In simple terms, this is user behavior on your site and in the search results, applicable to your site. That is, the more satisfaction the user has with your site, the higher the site is in terms of behavioral factors. Such interesting information obtained as a result of research was published somehow on SEOnews

What do we see here? And the fact that one of the important components of the behavioral factor is the percentage of refusals. What it is?

This is when a person lands on a page on your site and leaves it. The bounce rate may vary for different sites. For example, for blogs this can be 50-80%. Yes, yes, even 80% in some cases is normal. For an online store, this may be an indicator of 30%. The numbers, of course, are very relative, but still.

In any case, in order to improve behavioral factors, you need to strive to reduce the bounce rate, increase the time a user spends on the site. How can this be achieved?

How to improve behavioral factors:

1. I said already above that, first of all, you need increase page view time... How to do it? First, and most importantly, if an article is optimized for some query, then it (article) must be relevant to this query. And she must answer the question, which is hidden in the sense of the request. That is, the user needs to get an answer to his question. He goes to the page of our site and finds the necessary information there. He studies this information, and it takes time. And this only plays into our hands, because if users spend a lot of time on the site (page), then there is useful information there, and, therefore, such a page can be ranked high

You can view the user factors of any site using DoubleClick Ad Planner ... For example, for my site the following happened:

Now we need to compare the performance of our site with sites of similar topics. Here, in the DoubleClick Ad Planner report, a list of competing sites will be given below.

We see that all the blogs that are here - they are all related. That is, there is nothing left. Take Dimok's blog (blog.dimok.ru), look at the user factors for the blog.dimok.ru domain

Why do you need to compare these data? Remember that I said that for an online store, a bounce rate of 30% may be normal, but for a blog, 70-80% will be normal. So, with the help of such a comparison, you can see if the behavioral factors of your site meet the standards of your niche. That is, in this case, if you compare your blog with that of Dima Golopolosov, then, in general, I see that in terms of the average length of stay on the site, the situation is about the same

2. You need to try increase the number of sessions... A session is a series of views from a single visitor. Simply put, this is when one user views several pages. How can this be achieved?

We look at which of the pages on our site need to be pulled up in the search, and which of them have a fairly high bounce rate. We find such pages and start working on each of them. First of all, it is advisable somewhere at the beginning of the page to provide a link to other interesting material on the topic on your site so that the user will go to another page.

There is a dedicated plugin for WordPress - Related Posts, which inserts a list of similar publications after each article. This is good, but there is a BUT! I analyzed how people follow these links generated by the plugin. And he compared how they followed the links directly from the body of the article. In the second case, the number of transitions will be much higher. Therefore, it is best to link from the body of the article. But to refer not like many (and I have sinned before) - it is just stupid to sculpt the necessary anchors in the body of the article, and use the full title of the articles to which we link as anchors. In this case, there will be significantly more conversions, they will be more targeted, and, therefore, users will stay on the site longer. Thus, one article clings to another, a whole logical chain is built, and as a result improved behavioral ranking factors.

3. Insert video... I haven't paid much attention to this before. What about that video? Just think! But then, in the light of behavioral factors, I somehow rethought this matter. I looked at how Shakin's (shakin.ru), and many others have organized pages. Mikhail Shakin has been publishing an interesting video after each article for a long time. Moreover, it does not have to be a video on the topic of the article in which it is published. It could be just something interesting. Therefore, the publication of a video is a great opportunity to keep the user on the page, thereby improving the opinion of the search engine about this page.

4. Add the Google+ button to your website (and other buttons of social networks according to the Share principle). Behavioral factors and their improvement are also where visitors come from. If they come not only from search engines, but also from other sources, then this is positively evaluated by the search engines. Surely Google will pay a lot of attention to its social component. This can be judged even by the fact that in the service Google Webmaster Toolsthere was such a menu - Indicators "+1"to see how social activity affects Google search results. That is, the connection between the direct search results and social activity is obvious. And if the search giant Google takes it into account, then surely Yandex will take it into account. Therefore, we need to work on increasing the "distribution" of our materials on different social media. networks. You can read about how Internet users relate to Google's innovation in the analytical article.

5. Improve website usability... Here I mean ease of navigation, ease of movement of users on the site. All this ultimately affects the indicator of behavioral factors. You can do the following. For a WordPress blog, you can make the sidebar more informative. For example, you can add some useful service, you can even make some kind of video in the sidebar with a greeting from the blog author. This, by the way, is on many seo blogs in the burzhunet. Or just make all the links in the sidebar more informative: arrange them with images, so that the user has more desire to follow these links. Or you can write some useful material in Word format, for example, how to buy links in. Then upload it to your hosting, and give a download link somewhere in the sidebar. And in the Word file, too, poke links to your site where it will be appropriate. That is, we are again working to ensure that the user concentrates on our site for a longer time.

Conclusion

In the article, I focused more on internal factors, but there are also behavioral ranking factors that can be attributed to external ones. Here I refer to user behavior in the search results, namely, clickability. True, I will talk about all this later.

High ranking for key queries is the goal that every site goes to. The logic is simple: the higher a page is in the search results, the more people visit it, the number of potential leads and customers increases.

The ranking is determined by search engine algorithms. They used to be based on mathematical formulas for "authority", but SEOs have come up with many tricks to outwit the algorithm. Therefore, search engines use several methods of checking a resource at once, the result of which will be high or low ranking.

What determines the ranking and how to improve the position of your site - let's analyze it in the material, it is suitable for beginners and will help you better navigate the important factors.

There are many indicators, and special attention should be paid analysis of behavioral factors... The algorithm is based on the behavior of the users themselves, such an assessment is objective and reflects the preferences of people. In order not to fail on this indicator, the site must really meet the requirements of users, and not try to deceive search engines.

What are the behavioral factors?

To make the algorithm harder to cheat, search engines pay attention to a variety of coefficients and sequences. The main factors that determine the place of the site in the search results:

Influence of behavioral factors on ranking

Different pages have different purposes, how do search engines get user behavior statistics and how do they analyze it?

The first stage is collecting information.

Search engines receive information from various sources, these include:

• Statistics systems(Google Analytics and Yandex.Metrica)
  They give the amount of information about site visitors, most of the behavioral factors are displayed in this way. The resource owner may not connect himself to the systems, but then he will not receive a lot of useful data either.

• Browsers
  Branded browsers automatically send data about human behavior on the web to search engines. This is done by Google Chrome, Yandex Browser and even Internet Explorer.

• Add-ons
  The most famous example is Yandex.Bar. In essence, it turns any browser into a branded one and sends all the necessary information to the search engine.

The second stage is analysis.

The difficulty is that for some sites certain factors are not important. For one-page pages, the viewing depth does not matter, but it will always be at a low level - this is logical, there is only one page. This is where data segmentation, interpretation, and machine learning come into play. Thanks to sophisticated algorithms, the system will be able to identify really important factors and rank the site by them.

How to improve behavioral factors without cheating

In this block, we will look at the most basic and effective techniques for improving the relationship between the site and users in order to improve rankings. How to influence behavioral factors to get your site higher.

Optimize snippet in SERP

Improving the snippet is necessary to increase the click-through rate. This can be done in several ways. For example, make a good title and description. They should not only have an entry for the keyword, but also explain exactly what the person will find and learn about on the page. At the same time, one should be guided by the rule "brevity is the sister of talent." A good description is 150-180 characters in volume.

Hey. Search engines are constantly changing the algorithms for ranking sites, trying to make their results as useful as possible for a person. Therefore, today in the article I will touch on seo, namely, I will talk about how to improve the behavioral factors on the site, which Yandex, Google and other search engines like to analyze so much.

It is difficult to assess the quality of a site based only on the number of incoming links and content, as a result of which search engines had to turn their attention to another extremely important factor related to user behavior, which is collected on the basis of statistical data.

Behavioral factors (PF) - this is a record of the data of the visitor's behavior on the site, that is, how long he viewed the page, how many pages he opened, whether he returned to the site, by what request he came to the site, and others.

And here's how Google classifies this concept:

Of course, it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer, which parameter has a big impact when taking into account page ranking.

Many webmasters and seo-companies are constantly conducting various kinds of analyzes and experiments in order to understand what to look for when promoting their own projects, as well as client sites.

Based on their data, a small list of the most significant factors was obtained:

If your project is interesting and in demand, then the visitor will stay on it for a long time, which indicates its usefulness.

The higher this indicator, the better.

A refusal is a single view of a visitor's page less than 15 seconds. One of the most significant parameters that is difficult to improve.

For example, if a user spends no more than 15 seconds on your site and returns to search results, this is 1 refusal.

Today the blog had about 12% of such refusals. As you can see, it is almost impossible to get rid of them completely, but you cannot forget about it.

It is necessary to strive to keep such refusals as few as possible, because this is a signal for search engines that such a page contains content that does not satisfy the visitor's requests, and the page may be underestimated in the search results.

My blog statistics show that on average I had 1.4 pages viewed today. It turns out that almost every second click on some other links.

Visitors can come to the site not only from search engines, but also from other sources (transitions from social networks, bookmarks and other sites).

If the site is useful, then there is a high probability that the visitor will add it to their bookmarks or share the link with other network users.

All of this reflects an increase in direct visits and an improvement in behavioral page ranking factors.

How often visitors return to site pages without the help of search engines. This parameter is very important and has a good effect on the position in the search results.

Judge for yourself, if a person using Yandex or Google with the help of the necessary request has found important information for themselves on the pages of your site and after a while it returns again, but from a browser bookmark or address bar, then your material is really high-quality, deserving high positions.

First click... It is very important which web resource in the TOP results the user prefers, namely, makes the first click.

So you want to buy a garage, naturally enter a query in Yandex search "Buy a garage" and you see a lot of relevant page titles.

Which site do you prefer? Of course, the one whose title will contain information on the search request, as well as the one who has a better detailed description, namely the "snippet".

I told in great detail about its formation in the article "".

If in the SERP, a person clicks on the site, which is located on the 3rd place, then this is another signal for the search engine that this site better meets the requests of visitors and, perhaps, after a while it will be increased in the search results.

Therefore, try to compose the description of the pages as qualitatively as possible, and if the opportunity allows, then configure the display of the extended snippet, which I will talk about next time, do not miss.

You can easily track all of the above parameters using Yandex Metrics, Google Analytics and a visit counter.

How to increase the time a visitor spends on the site

Everything goes to the fact that over time, search engines will attach much more importance to behavioral factors than now and therefore it is worth constantly improving.

Take a look at a small diagram for improving behavioral ranking factors.

Content... No wonder they say: "Content rules!" After all, it is he who is the main one on any information platform. Your task is to write interesting, useful and unique articles that will be relevant to the requests of visitors and fully disclose the given topic.

You can also add videos, polls, quizzes or mini games on the content pages.

Internal linking... Your task is to make the visitor stay on the site, so it will only be a plus if he looks at other pages.

This can be done by placing thematic links to other articles, as well as by using similar posts at the end of the post or popular in the sidebar.

Today we will focus on behavioral factors. Yandex search robots consider this parameter to be a priority when ranking. Do you want to improve it and advance in the search? Then you are here.

List of behavioral factors

Bounce rate

In fact, this means refusing to view the site. It looks like this: a visitor enters the site, but from the first seconds realizes that he is in the wrong place... He sees that the content of the page does not correspond to the request that he entered in the search bar or, in scientific terms, is irrelevant to him. In addition, the user can leave the resource due to a bad, inconvenient menu and similar factors. Small print, images in poor resolution and even poorly chosen colors can play on failure. Even if the content is good, a person will not break their eyes and look for something more comfortable.

Example:

The visitor came to the site by request “”. Its goal is to find a platform to create. But instead, he sees articles on the site on how to do it. A person is not interested in this, he already has information. Therefore, the user closes the page and continues searching. The next behavioral factor is about this.

Return to search

The situation is the same: the user opened a page from the search results, only this time everything was fine with him. A convenient and functional site and at first glance it is clear that the information is adequate to the key request. Let's say this is some kind of article on a topic of interest to him. A person reads the material to the end, after which he realizes that the information was not exhaustive: he did not receive answers to all his questions. What does the visitor do? He closes the tab and continues to look for information on other sources.

This also takes into account the search algorithm. It lowers the ranking of sites, after visiting which, visitors again use the search. If the search is continued, the problem has not been solved or not completely solved.

Example:

The person is typing the key query “replacing brake pads with Renault Logan”. He goes to one of the pages of the issue and begins to study the material. Everything is good, but here's the problem: the portal only says about replacing the front brake pads of this car. There is not a word about the rear ones, but the user needs this information. The visitor reads to the end, closes the tab and goes to another resource.

There he finds information about replacing both front and rear pads, but does not see video how to do it live. The person goes to the third site, where all this is. He reads the material, watches the video, then stops searching and closes the browser. The last site, all other things being equal, will be a priority for the search engine.

Session length

It is simply the time the visitor spends on the pages of the site. Everything is relatively simple here: the more time he was on the resource, the better... This means that the materials are interesting to him, and it is convenient to use the site. And if a person also “walks” through the pages, moving from section to section, this is even better. The next behavioral factor is just about that.

Session depth

Shows how many pages of the site the user has visited. In general, the more the better. The factor shows not only that the materials are interesting in principle, but also that the resource is convenient for surfing.

Often, in order to increase the depth of the session, webmasters artificially complicate the structure of the site, for example, post continuation of articles on other pages, make redundant menus, and so on. You shouldn't do this: users will leave portals with a complex structure, because they are inconvenient to use. This means that the percentage of refusals will increase.

Internal behavioral factors on the example of Yandex Metrics

Whether the site has direct traffic

If visitors type in the search bar not a key query, but immediately the name of a specific site, he gets it. The same applies when users go to the site from bookmarks, favorites folder, magazine, or personal TOP (visual bookmarks). This factor speaks of two things. At first, the resource has its own constant... Secondly, the site is simply known to a large number of people - he has a powerful brand.

Example:

The visitor types in the search bar “” and goes to a certain site from the search results. In this case, the resource receives search traffic. If the user immediately dials, for example, “Svyaznoy” or “Euroset”, then this is already a direct transition. The more such transitions, the higher the site's position in the search results.

Search algorithms use this parameter to calculate dynamic page weight and recognize artificial cheating of behavioral factors... The robot analyzes the movement of the mouse cursor on the page. When you try to wind up the movement indicators will be primitive and of the same type. The real user moves the cursor more chaotically. Below we will tell you more about the cheating of behavioral indicators.

Heatmap site: the page elements that grab the most visitor attention

Clickability of links from a snippet

If users often go to the sections of interest on the site directly from the search link, this also increases the ranking of the site by robots. The factor says, firstly, that information is relevant to the target query... Secondly, the visitor finds the information they need faster: he does not use the menu and does not even open, but immediately goes to the desired section.

CTR of social media buttons

Search engines also take into account the fact how actively users are sharing content... This also suggests that the information on the site is useful and interesting.

What to do to improve behavioral factors on the site

The answer is simple: create sites that quickly and efficiently solve user problems... Here's what you need to do for this:

• publish. If these are articles, then they should be written in a simple and understandable language and provide comprehensive information upon request. Feel free to give more details. Sometimes you can hear the opinion that people are reluctant to read large chunks of text on the Internet. This is only partly true, and to a greater extent applies to social networks. When you write material on a serious topic, do not be afraid to give the reader more data. Firstly, this reduces the risk of rejection, and secondly, the session time increases;
• make the site usable. What's the use of a good article if no one finds and reads it? Work out the UX characteristics, make a convenient menu. Set up an adequate search on the site: this way visitors will find the information they need faster;
• work on the design. Now the trend is a large amount of "air" - free space on the pages. Make headlines that are readable and immediately catchy and readable at a glance. The background of the text should be as contrasting as possible. If everything merges and dazzles from this, the user will leave the site, even if there is useful content;
• make the optimal structure and menu. Do not forget about the rule of three clicks: the user must reach the goal in 3-5 clicks on the mouse button;

One more point: behavioral factors do not work in isolation and always need to consider combinations of them... An improvement in one metric can negatively affect another. For example, you wanted to increase the depth and time of the session by using redundant structure. But it can raise the bounce rate as well as continued searches. A person will simply leave an inconvenient resource, where you need to constantly switch something, look for and do a lot of unnecessary actions. Your task is to find the optimal balance of behavioral factors.

Interesting fact. There is a debate between SEOs and webmasters about which is better: open sections of the site in the current tab, or redirect the user to a new one. There is no ready-made recipe here. On the one hand, if everything happens in one window, it increases the length and depth of the session. On the other hand, the transition from the current tab to a new one can be regarded by the robot as a refusal or continuation of the search. In addition, this format is not always convenient for the user: he would like to first read the current material, but if he clicks on the link in the body of the text, he will not be able to do this - a new section will open immediately. Then you have to go back and finish reading, or look for a link in the text after reading.

The irony of fate is that nobody really knows how search algorithms work. Therefore, it is difficult to give a definite answer. It all depends on the individual characteristics of the site.

Why you shouldn't cheat behavioral factors

Term SEO (search engine optimization - search engine optimization) emerged almost simultaneously with the advent of search engines. Website creators tried to fit their brainchildren to the algorithms of robots in order to improve their positions in the search. At first it was relatively simple: I stuffed more keywords into the text, and the site went to the TOP. Keyword ranking is the first and only Yandex algorithm that was used at the very beginning of the system. We will not say what this led to.

Now, according to the assurances of "Yandex" itself, the search engine takes into account 800 different parameters and their combinations. They all boil down to one thing: a site in the top should satisfy user requests as much as possible.

In addition, the domestic search engine mercilessly punishes any attempts to artificially cheat any of the parameters. Behavioral factors are no exception.

If a few years ago (until August 31, 2018) it was possible to promote a site through purchased links, now agencies for the creation and promotion of sites offer a new service - the promotion of behavioral factors. Dozens of exchanges have been created, where performers, for a small fee, are offered to create the appearance of movement on a particular resource.

It looks like this: a certain customer places a simple task on the site - to go to a certain site and perform some actions on it. For example, open the desired section, click on the indicated links, and so on. In this case, the performer must spend a certain time on the resource. The calculation is clear: the more users visit the site and stay there for a while, the better the behavioral ones. And everything would be fine if not for one “but”. Search engines have long learned to recognize such manipulations.

Remember the heat sitemap? For a custom visitor, cursor movements are too stereotyped and monotonous. The robot immediately sees this and regards it as an attempt at artificial optimization. For this, the site may be downgraded in the search results and even apply a filter.

Conclusion

Does this mean that the creators of the search engines have outplayed unscrupulous SEOs? Perhaps yes. But all those who work honestly have only benefited from this. The end user also won. Now he is more likely to receive really high-quality material, and not a creation tailored to the work of robots, which will not solve his problem. Make your website user-friendly, post quality content and take your well-deserved place in the TOP. Success in promotion!