I know bounce rate and the SERPs is not a brand new topic, but its also one that hasn’t gotten a grand amount of attention either. It’s well known that link bait will help get a page to the top of the SERPs and this has been widely assumed to be because of all of the links pointing to the page.

But, there is a secondary reason as well, which is that visitors tend to stay on link bait pages longer (low bounce rate) and tend to move from this page to other pages on the same site. Google Analytics measures bounce rate to give webmasters an idea of how interested the visitors are to a particular website and the average time they spend there.

Measuring bounce rate as part of a page popularity ranking does make sense in most cases. There are a few pitfalls, however, in giving too much weight to bounce rate in the SERPs.

Using bounce rate is a way to drop spammy websites down in the SERPs while promoting authority pages to the top. But, just how do the search engines tell the difference? One would think that a typically spammy site with lots of ads and little content would have a high bounce rate as person after person would be hitting the back button quickly on this page.

But, what about another page that has simple, but quality content that give the visitor what they need immediately and they get what they need and also hit the back button on the browser quickly. For instance, a web page with a singular funny picture and short caption may give the visitor a laugh and they will then move on quickly to the next topic of interest.

There is also the issue of many visitors who like to open several windows at a time to different pages or leave there computers with a page open. This will give a page at least from one visitor a low bounce rate, but what if for some odd reason there was a trend of similar behavior by visitors on this particular page? This would artificially inflate the bounce rate.

More likely than not, bounce rate is just one small factor that search engines consider (if some of them track this information at all) when developing their ranking algorithms and positions in the SERPs. The moral of the story is that content is still king, link bait rules and by keeping visitors on your pages as long as possible, you certainly can’t go wrong.

Microsoft’s MSN and Yahoo can leverage their large networks to show display advertisements. But, will this merger benefit publishers? Right now, Google dominates the market as even the smallest of Web publisher who wants to make money online can sign up for and start displaying Google AdSense ads.

I’ve also talked recently about Microsoft’s ContentAds program for publishers, which is still in beta testing as well as the Yahoo publisher program, which is likewise still in beta testing. With the merger, the future of both of these programs comes into question.

Will these programs be merged or will they operate independently of each other? Will the merger cause so much confusion that it delays the rollout of either of these programs to the public significantly? Publishers have now been waiting three years for Yahoo to open up its beta publisher program to the public and this merger could cause yet another unbearable delay to those waiting in the wings.

Another issue is how will the merger affect the search results for both MSN and Yahoo? If both companies combine resources and algorithms and ultimately deliver the same results to users, most likely users will opt for one search engine over the other, hurting the lesser of the two. If the search results are not improved significantly for one or both of the search engines then Google continues to dominate the field.

The merger and acquisition of Yahoo by Microsoft if it happens at all is expected to take a very long time, with many hurdles to jump in the U. S. and in Europe. In the meantime, will many of the programs for both search giants be on hold, waiting for the outcome of the merger? If progress is delayed, then Google may take this opportunity to gain even more ground and become even more dominant in the search and online advertising arena, and this isn’t exactly the results that Microsoft and Yahoo are after.

Google dependency can have a huge downside when the algorithms are changed and sites that have enjoyed top positions in the rankings and sometimes for year have all of a sudden dropped deep with the SERPs. In fact, many online businesses have gone out of business because of this kind of shake up in the rankings. The Florida update a few years back is just one example.

So, how does one become less dependent upon Google? The key to becoming less dependent upon Google is becoming more dependent upon other search engines like Yahoo, MSN and Ask plus direct traffic from other sources. Google places a higher value on the inbound links than it does in on-page optimization.

In order to rank well in Yahoo, MSN and Ask, however, one has to put a priority on the on-page optimization of a website. By maximizing both on-page and off-page optimization, websites will be able to lessen Google dependency and receive more targeted traffic from the other search engines.

Placing a website’s links in directories, trading reciprocal links, submitting articles to article banks and writing press releases with links back to the website are also a good way to market one’s site and become less Google dependent.

Those who diversify their marketing efforts on the Internet are more likely to weather the storm when the inevitable drop in the SERPs occur. With less Google dependence comes empowerment and this is something that all Web businesses would do well to strive towards.