User Experience Signals
User experience signals are the behavioural measures search engines may use to judge whether a result satisfied its query, including clicks, returns to search and on-page engagement. Google is deliberately vague about which of them it uses and how heavily.
Why it matters for your rankings
Google has consistently denied using simple engagement metrics as direct ranking factors, while court disclosures and patents indicate that click and interaction data does inform its systems in some form.
The productive response is to ignore the argument and optimise for the underlying reality. Whatever the mechanism, pages that people abandon immediately tend to decline over time, and pages that satisfy visitors tend to hold their positions. That means the practical work is identical either way: match the page to the intent, answer quickly, make it fast and readable, and give the reader an obvious next step. Chasing engagement metrics artificially, by hiding answers to increase time on page, achieves the opposite.
How to check it on your site
Compare engagement by landing page
In GA4, check engagement rate and average engagement time for organic landing pages against each other.
Look for fast returns to search
Very low engagement time on pages ranking well usually signals an intent mismatch.
Fix the first screen
Ensure the page delivers on the promise of its title above the fold rather than after a long introduction.
Measure scroll depth
Where readers stop scrolling is usually where the page stopped being useful to them.