Tomorrow At SMX, I'll be speaking on the New Periodic Table of SEO. I'll be talking about my theory (and others) that behavioral metrics are now part of Google's search algorithm.  I'll be discussing the potential metrics they are examining as well as ones I don't believe they would use (such as Google Aanalytics bounce rate).

As I have discussed previously, I believe the user metrics they collect on the SERP gives them the answer as to whether or not the user has a satisfactory experience with a specific search result. This whole experience I refer to as the Search User Experience (SearchUX or SUX).

The traditional UX and traditional User Experience Engineering  starts and ends on a website. The SearchUX starts on the SERP - transitions to a Website, and, if unsatisfactory, ends on back on the SERP.  

Whether explicit or implicit, all searches are questions - a quest for information in which the user has a very specific goal in his mind.  Satisfy that quest and you terminate the search. Terminate the search and Google cannot collect any negative metrics about the site. In fact, the terminated search is likely a positive metric.

You have no actual knowledge of the metrics that Google collects on the SERP and herein lies one of the big difficulties.  I'll address those difficulties in my talk and in my next blog post as well.