In this article, you will learn everything about Pogo Sticking in SEO.<\/p>\n
…And lots more<\/p>\n
First thing first:<\/p>\n
When a user goes back to the SERP instantly after clicking on a link because the result didn\u2019t satisfy their search query is known as pogo-sticking.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with an example for better understanding.<\/p>\n
A user enters a query on the search engine and the search engine comes up with a list of results.<\/p>\n
The user goes to the first link and is not happy with the result. They jump back to the SERP and look for a result that satisfies their query.<\/p>\n
In short, when a user jumps back and forth in the SERP it is called Pogo Sticking.<\/p>\n
It also helps Google to evaluate the rankings for a given keyword. If a lot of users Pogostick after they have clicked on the first link, Google understands the result doesn\u2019t satisfy the user intent and thus decides to drop it down a few spots and place more relevant results at the top.<\/p>\n
When a user goes to your website and returns back immediately to the SERP, it not only increases your bounce rate but can also affect your ranking in the SERP.<\/p>\n
Pogo Sticking can say a lot about your website and its content. Here are a few reasons which might show why visitors are Pogo Sticking from your website.<\/p>\n
\u201cContent is the king\u201d.\u00a0 Something Bill Gates wrote way back in 1996 and it is still relevant.<\/p>\n
The motif of the user is to read what exactly they want to read. If a user searches for \u201cApple gone bad\u201d<\/strong>, it can either be a real rotted apple or a broken apple device.<\/p>\n If you provide an apple service but users want to learn whether their apple has gone bad, they certainly don\u2019t want to visit your website.<\/p>\n Irrelevant content results in user dissatisfaction. Regardless of how good your content is if it doesn’t match the user\u2019s needs, they certainly won\u2019t hang around.<\/p>\n Now, how to figure out if any of your pages are optimized with the wrong target keyword, resulting in Pogo Sticking,<\/p>\n Open Google Analytics -> All Traffic -> Channels -> Organic Traffic<\/p>\n Now, set the Landing page as the primary dimension.<\/p>\n Go to the advanced search option and set the number of page views to the maximum.<\/p>\n Now, filter the result for pages that have a visit duration of less than fifty seconds.<\/p>\n Sort the result for ascending order based on the average page visit duration\u00a0 If any of the pages have an \u201cAvg. Time on Page\u201d of less than 17 seconds, then the users might have been Pogo Sticking on that page.<\/p>\n Pages with a high bounce rate and less visit duration can also be a sign of Pogo Sticking. If it ranks on the top but is a victim of Pogo Sticking, then the rankings might start to drop soon.<\/p>\n What you can do is revise the content and the keywords. Search for the target keyword on the search engine and go through the results to understand when people are using that keyword and what kind of result they are looking for in the given term.<\/p>\n Also, apart from high-quality content, don\u2019t forget to include attractive visual content so users are motivated to spend some more time on the page.<\/p>\n You can also try to emit long sentences and paragraphs so users don\u2019t feel like they have been reading forever to get to the point.<\/p>\n Poor user experience can lead to pogo-sticking.<\/p>\n If a user comes to your page and is really disappointed with the site speed, or the design, or has to face annoying pop-ups when they are trying to find something can cause them to Pogo Stick.<\/p>\n Your aim should be to retain the visitors of your page by making the user experience seamless.<\/p>\n Regardless of how relevant or informative, your content is, if your user experience is not up to the mark, people will bounce back from your website.<\/p>\n A few reasons that may lead to a poor user experience are:<\/p>\n You need to make sure that each element in your site is designed to improve your page\u2019s user experience.<\/p>\n SEO experts suggest improving the typography of your theme by including more clear and interesting headlines, and a larger font size.<\/p>\n User search for \u201cApple gone bad\u201d, click on the first result (let\u2019s consider that is your site on top), find out information on \u201chow to repair your Apple device\u201d, goes back to the SERP, clicks on the second link, it is again about \u201cHow to fix your Apple device\u201d.<\/p>\n The user goes back to the SERP, modifies the search term with \u201cedible Apple gone bad\u201d.<\/p>\n When multiple users Pogo Sticks and modifies their search term because the results are irrelevant, Google reconsiders the results page for \u201cApple gone bad\u201d and starts showing results similar to the pages that users are reading after modifying their search query.<\/p>\n In short,\u00a0 Google is a people-pleaser and you can\u2019t ignore that. If people are unhappy with the search result for a given query, Google will be unhappy with you because you are not serving what people want to read.<\/p>\n Eventually, your rankings will drop.<\/p>\n Incomplete content can also cause your user to Pogo Stick.<\/p>\n However, this might not affect your ranking because users already found answers to their search queries. But when they tried to read more about it, they had to go back to the SERP and find other links where there is more content on the topic.<\/p>\n So, when you are writing a piece of content, don\u2019t just stick to the basics. Try to answer all the relevant topics related to the primary topic.<\/p>\n This can result in a really long piece of content, but users will be happy that they found all they want in one place.<\/p>\n Google considers more than 200 ranking factors to rank a website. Makes more than 500 changes to its ranking algorithm in a year, and recruits more than 1000 Google engineers to improve the search engine.<\/p>\n All these efforts are to improve the satisfaction level of users.<\/p>\n Satisfaction is an important ranking factor and a well-kept secret of Google.<\/p>\n Google never discloses how it actually measures satisfaction but what we know is it is an important metric used by Google to evaluate the search result.<\/p>\n However, you can learn about how Google measures and predicts satisfaction by reading Steven Levy\u2019s book \u201cIn The Plex\u201d.<\/p>\n Long clicks and Short clicks are the basic factors for calculating satisfaction.<\/p>\n Long Clicks: User searches for a query, and visits the first link in the SERP, and never comes back.<\/p>\n Voila!<\/p>\n Users got what they wanted which means Google\u2019s job is done here.<\/p>\n Short Clicks: The user visits the site, bounces back to the SERP immediately, changes their query, or goes to the next page. Google gets the hint that users are not happy with the search result.<\/p>\n Google also has a small army, a.k.a., Search Quality Raters.<\/p>\n They are real humans who rate sites depending on how they satisfy the search query. The highest honor that a site can get is \u201cUseful<\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n Though that wasn\u2019t enough because there are millions of sites to evaluate and Google’s Search Quality Raters are a small batch of army.<\/p>\n To overcome this hurdle, Google introduced a new system, Panda.<\/p>\n With Panda, Google can predict the satisfaction level based on real-human surveys and apply the factors to all the sites in its index.<\/p>\n The index is updated with new data every few weeks. Sites that have a low satisfaction level are ranked lower on the SERP.<\/p>\n Since now you know that satisfaction is a Google ranking factor, it\u2019s your turn to tweak your websites for the best results.<\/p>\n Here are a few tips that might help you to improve satisfaction.<\/p>\n Google released a free website satisfaction survey form for website owners that they can embed to their sites.<\/p>\n It contains five questions that are:<\/p>\n All though, you can customize the questions at a cost of $0.01 per response.<\/p>\n Some sites ask users to fill up a form to continue surfing on the website. If all the pages on your site need registration to view, it is frustrating for users.<\/p>\n They will visit and bounce back and after a few hundred similar scenarios, Google gets the idea that the users are not happy with the website, thus resulting in a lower ranking.<\/p>\n Nothing makes a user happier than a speedy and responsive website.<\/p>\n Speed is also a part of Google Core Web Vitals and also plays a vital role in user satisfaction.<\/p>\n Imagine visiting a site that takes forever to load. Won\u2019t you jump back to the search result and find another site that loads up fast?<\/p>\n Not only users, but Google loves speed too.<\/p>\n Users love to read content that addresses their needs and emotions. So, try being a tad more empathetic while writing content by putting yourself in the user\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n A few things that will help users to connect with your website is:<\/p>\n Pogo Sticking and Bounce Rate are not the same things.<\/p>\n A high bounce rate doesn\u2019t define that your site content is bad. People may have got what they are looking for, and bounced back to the SERP without any interaction.<\/p>\n However, Pogo Sticking means users bounce back to the SERP immediately after landing on your page. This is a clear indication of dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n Here are the primary differences between Pogo Sticking and Bounce Rate<\/p>\n#2 The Site Has A Poor User Experience<\/b><\/h3>\n
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#3 The Results Were Irrelevant To The Search Query<\/b><\/h3>\n
#4 The On-Page Content Doesn\u2019t Cover All The Aspects Of The Topic<\/b><\/h3>\n
How Google Measures And Predicts Satisfaction?<\/b><\/h2>\n
Tips To Improve User Satisfaction<\/strong><\/h2>\n
#1 Add Google\u2019s Free Website Satisfaction Survey To Your Website<\/b><\/h3>\n
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#2 Break The Wall<\/b><\/h3>\n
#3 Speed It Up<\/b><\/h3>\n
#4 Practice Empathy<\/b><\/h3>\n
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What’s the Difference Between Pogo Sticking and Bounce Rate?<\/b><\/h2>\n