Are conversions/activities after a clickthrough from SERPs good for SEO?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

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  Stephen Rosenberg: Had a bit of a debate about this last night - seems far from settled science: since Google encourages engagement, are conversions/activities after a clickthrough from SERPs good for SEO?
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  Mike Stetzer: As long as this activity that is keeping users on your site isn't super manipulative or unethical, I can't see why it would be "bad" for SEO. Getting users to remain on the site following a clickthrough is one of the many things we're striving for.
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  Stephen Rosenberg: Totally agree. I think the crux of the question though is does more of that activity boost search engine ranking performance? Like Google says, "Wow, that site sure is good at getting people to do stuff in credible ways - maybe we should reward that!" ;
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  Mike Stetzer: This conversation hits close to home because I work in lead gen for legal, but I think there's another component to it too. We built something several months back that was a topical interactive quiz where at the end, it fed consumers into our lead gen form. That quiz did really well on the social sharing side of things, bringing new users to the site AND keeping those users on the site. If you can accomplish both, I think that's a win/win situation.
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  Stephen Rosenberg: Awesome, thanks for sharing. So perhaps the lesson is using the social marketing side of things to create popularity and build social links as a form of SEO, to flow folks back and convert.  ;
  
  That's definitely at the heart of things for us, as crossfunctional marketers, trying to integrate all the pieces for clients. Thanks for sharing.
  
  Here's an A/B example to clarify the question - say for example there are two identical landing pages with the same domain authorities, linking C-blocks, etc. If the copy/layout on one does a better job at engagement (clicking a CTA), I wonder if it would show up above the other in SERPs. Granted, every SERP is different by user, location, Circles, etc., so maybe not technically possible to say. But to me anyway interesting in theory. ;
   ; ;
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  Chris Hutchings: I think they definitely are, although a very small sample, one of my sites is ranking very well for a page that has a very low bounce rate and high time on page/site and another page nowhere to be seen as it used to rank well but the bounce rate was >95%. I have colleagues and friends that have also experienced this.
  
  I believe that if engagement occurs after click through from the serps, it is a signal to Google that they were pointing the searcher in the right direction. Obviously if the bounce rate is really high it shows them that the site they were providing was not right for that term.
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  Mike Stetzer: In your A/B example: all things being equal (authority, links pointing to the page, etc), if page A has a lower bounce rate and users are staying on that page longer, I like to think it would show up above page B because those two metrics are important in terms of relevancy. If people are staying on page A longer than page B for the same query, than that means that page A is likely more relevant than page B. These aren't the only two metrics that factor into it though, and like you said, it's very difficult to say anything with certainty. ;
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  Eli Pacheco: Mike brings a good point. I believe if you offer something of quality and key on engagement, it's OK with Google if it benefits you through a lead-gen form or some such. It's about quality engagement.
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  Stephen Rosenberg: I agree, and all have been excellent comments. I feel though as SEOs we're falling back on "engagement" is good. That's true, but is the actual act of clicking a CTA on a landing page good for SEO? As its a bounce vs. unbounce, I think it must be.
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  Chris Hutchings: +Mike Stetzer
  I appreciate these are not the only two factors and as I said it was a pretty small sample but it was noticeable. In this case, links to the site were all homepage links, onsite was exactly the same, can't take in to account competitors but one page is ranking 3 for a specific term and the other is 70ish for another term.
  
  I do a lot of testing on lots of different sites concerning different metrics/tactics etc and it could be the case that as the algorithm updates and evolves, more weight is given to such things.
  
  Obviously all things are never equal so it is impossible to know for definite but it would make sense that Google does want to make sure that if they send someone to a site from a particular search that it is the right fit and they may adjust their rankings as a result.
  
  That being said, what is right for one person might not be right for another and this is where we open a whole can of worms!
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  Mike Stetzer: I'm all too familiar with the can of worms, +Chris Hutchings ;!
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  Honey Tree Media: +Stephen Rosenberg ;if it's good for the user, it's good for SEO. Consider focusing on it if it makes sense for your business. If it's good for the user and your business, then definitely focus on it, whether or not it will position you higher in the SERPs! After all, a conversion is getting the user to take a desired action. An action that you, as a business, desire.
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  Stephen Rosenberg: +Honey Tree Media ;I couldn't have said it better myself. :)  ;Appreciate the comment.