Google: CTR, Dwell Time & Other UX Signals Are Made Up Myths

Feb 8, 2019 - 7:55 am 40 by

Land of Make Believe

In that Reddit AMA with Gary Illyes, Gary said out right and clear that the theories around Google using UX and behavioral signals such as CTR and dwell time are "generally made up crap." He added "Search is much more simple than people think."

He also took a jab at Moz's founder, Rand Fishkin, who has often produced studies claiming Google uses these types of metrics for ranking. Gary Illyes wrote "Dwell time, CTR, whatever Fishkin's new theory is, those are generally made up crap."

I know most of you don't believe it but Gary, although very sarcastic, is a straight shooter and wouldn't out right say something like this if he didn't believe it to be true.

Google has said for over a decade that these metrics are not used by Google because they are easily spammable and very noisy. Google's messaging around this has been consistent and clear for well over a decade.

Forum discussion at Reddit.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Search Video Recaps

 
- YouTube
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: March 14, 2025

Mar 14, 2025 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google March Core Update, Google AI Mode Concerns, Google 22% Growth & AI Search Engines Wrong

Mar 14, 2025 - 8:01 am
Google Updates

Google March 2025 Core Update Is Rolling Out - Here Is A Deeper Dive

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:51 am
Google Ads

Google Ads WhatsApp Messaging For PMax

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:41 am
Google

Google Tests Accommodations Carousel For Hotel Results

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:31 am
Bing Search

Bing Tests New Copilot Answer Interface

Mar 14, 2025 - 7:21 am
Previous Story: Google Gary Illyes: RankBrain Is PR-Sexy Machine Learning