Latest / The SEO Podcast with Fexingo: Search Engine Optimization, Google Rankings, and Organic Traffic / Why Google Rewards Browsing Depth in 2026
Transcript
- Lucas: Okay, so we've talked a lot about how Google judges individual pages — freshness, passage ranking, structured data — but there's a quieter signal that's been getting more weight in 2026, and it's about the whole journey a user takes across your site. Luna: You mean beyond just landing on a page and reading it? Lucas: Exactly. I'm talking about browsing depth — how many pages a user visits in a session, how long they stick around, whether they click through to related content. Google's been calling it 'dwell time' for years, but the way it's measured and weighted has shifted. A single page that answers a query is fine, but a site that keeps users exploring is seen as more valuable. Luna: So it's not just about the content on the page, but what happens after they read it. Lucas: Right. And there's a recent case that illustrates this perfectly. A niche recipe blog — let's call it 'The Herb Garden' — restructured its entire site into topic clusters. Instead of having a hundred standalone recipes, they grouped them under categories like '30-Minute Meals' and 'Gluten-Free Baking,' with each category page linking to related recipes and a guide on meal prep. Over three months, their organic traffic jumped forty percent. Luna: Forty percent is huge. What do you think drove that? Lucas: Part of it is that Google's crawlers started seeing a more coherent entity — a site that clearly knows its topics and connects them. But the bigger piece is user behavior. When someone lands on a recipe for a quinoa salad, they see a link to 'Five more quinoa recipes' and then a guide to 'Batch Cooking Basics.' That click-through tells Google the page wasn't a dead end. Luna: So it's like a vote, but from the user's behavior rather than a link. Lucas: Yeah, exactly. And Google's been getting better at measuring that in-session behavior. They have the data from Chrome, from Android, from Search Console's clickstream data. They know if a user hits the back button after two seconds or if they explore three more pages. That's become a real ranking factor. Luna: But isn't that a bit of a chicken and egg problem? You need to rank well to get traffic, but you need traffic to show that behavior. Lucas: That's the thing — it's not just about traffic volume. It's about the quality of the session for the users who do come. Even small sites can see a bump if they improve their internal linking and give people a reason to click through. And that's something you can control. Luna: So what does that look like in practice? I mean, we've talked about internal linking before, but this feels like it's more about the overall architecture. Lucas: Right. It's about creating content silos that make sense. You don't just link from one recipe to another because they happen to be on the same site. You link because they're part of a story — a beginner's guide to sourdough links to the starter recipe, the baking schedule, and a troubleshooting FAQ. That kind of contextual linking encourages exploration. Luna: And that exploration is what Google rewards. Lucas: Yes. And it's not just blogs. E-commerce sites have been doing this for years with 'you might also like' and 'complete the look.' But for informational sites, it's a shift from writing standalone articles to building mini-hubs of content. Luna: So what's the one thing a listener could do this week to start improving their browsing depth? Lucas: Well, first, look at your analytics. In Google Analytics, check the average session duration and pages per session for your organic traffic. If you're seeing a high bounce rate on your blog posts, that's a sign they're dead ends. Then, pick your top ten performing pages and add two or three contextual links to other relevant content on your site. It's not about adding ten links to every post — it's about quality, relevant pathways. Luna: And that should help with both user experience and, over time, rankings. Lucas: Right. And Google's March 2026 core update really pushed this direction. Sites that were essentially collections of random articles, each fighting for the same keywords, lost ground. Sites that organized content into clear, connected structures gained. It's a signal that the days of churning out isolated posts are over. Luna: That reminds me of something I read the other day — a study showing that pages with a higher 'page depth' — meaning you click deeper into a site — tend to rank higher for commercial queries. Is that a real thing? Lucas: There is research like that, though you have to be careful about correlation versus causation. But it does suggest that sites that provide comprehensive coverage of a topic — and make it easy to navigate — are seen as more authoritative. So for a local business, that might mean having not just a homepage and a services page, but separate pages for each service with detailed info and a blog that supports it. Luna: So it's about being a resource, not just a brochure. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the 'topic cluster' model comes in. You have a pillar page that covers the broad topic — say, 'How to Start a Vegetable Garden' — and then cluster content: 'Soil Preparation,' 'Companion Planting,' 'Dealing with Pests.' All of it interlinked. That structure tells Google that your site is a go-to source for that subject. Luna: And it also keeps users on your site longer, which feeds back into the browsing-depth signal. Lucas: Right, it's a virtuous cycle. And with the rise of ai generated content, Google has even more reason to prioritize genuine user engagement. AI can generate a thousand articles, but it can't create a real network of content that keeps a user exploring for twenty minutes. Luna: That's a good point. So it's not just about the content itself, but the architecture and the experience. Lucas: And you know, this is something that really matters for the kind of small businesses and marketers who listen to this show. We talk a lot about big-picture algorithm changes, but this is one you can act on without a huge budget. Luna: Absolutely. And speaking of acting on it — a lot of what we do here on the show, digging into these topics, wouldn't happen without the people who support us. If these marketing conversations have sparked something you've actually used, a couple of dollars a month is genuinely what keeps these going — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo, if you've gotten something out of them. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small thing that makes a real difference. It keeps the show ad-free and independent. Luna: And we really appreciate it. Now, going back to browsing depth — what about sites that are just starting out and don't have a lot of content yet? Lucas: That's a good question. When you're starting, you can't build a huge cluster overnight. But you can be strategic. Instead of publishing random posts, plan your first ten articles around one core topic. Make sure each one links to the others and to a central hub page. That way, even with limited content, you're creating a web of information. Luna: So it's about planting seeds that will grow into a connected garden. Lucas: I like that metaphor. And it's something you can do in a week. Map out your next month of content, and think about how each piece will connect to the others. That's a mindset shift that will pay off in the long run. Luna: And for existing sites, what's the first step to auditing your current structure? Lucas: Start with your internal links. Use a tool like Google Search Console to see which pages are getting the most traffic, and then check if those pages link to other relevant pages on your site. If they don't, that's an opportunity. Also, look for orphan pages — pages with no internal links pointing to them. Those are completely invisible to users and barely get crawled. Bring them into the fold. Luna: So we're talking about both the links you put in and the ones you might be missing. Lucas: Exactly. And don't forget about the anchor text. Use descriptive, natural anchor text that tells users and Google what the linked page is about. Instead of 'click here,' use 'our guide to soil preparation.' Luna: That also helps with accessibility and user experience. Lucas: Yeah, it's all connected. And one more thing — don't oversaturate your content with links. A few well-placed, relevant links are better than a dozen random ones. Quality over quantity. Luna: So the takeaway is that browsing depth is a signal you can actually influence, unlike some algorithm updates. Lucas: Right. And it's not about gaming the system — it's about genuinely helping users find more value on your site. When you do that, the rankings tend to follow. Luna: It's almost like Google wants us to be better at our jobs. Lucas: Ha, exactly. That's a nice way to think about it. So, next week, I want to talk about how Google handles sitelinks and why they're another underrated signal. Luna: Sounds good. Until then, happy browsing.