Traffic for rankings

Threadwatch raises a discussion on Webmasterworld about Google possibly using traffic figures from the Google toolbar for ranking purposes.

It’s something I suggested would be inevitable last year.

The trouble is - following the traffic simply tells you where the well-trod places are.

And - much as though Google is loathe to see text links because it may impact the algo - using traffic patterns simply means that having a big AdWords budget could boost rankings.

Again, as well - it’s the same old problem of Mike Grehan’s “filthy linking rich - where sites with most traffic get the most links, and because they get the most links they get the most traffic. Neither says about the quality of the content in relation to other sites - it just tells you that the most popular sites get even more popular - simply by virtue of being popular. It’s not a measure of quality.

I guess there’s an analogy with tourism - people always visit the same places, and overlook the richer wonders out there. So what you end up is the danger of a sort of cultural blandness.

The more Google tightens up against anything but the biggest and richets sites, the less likely people will find all those other wonders out there in the world.

2c.