Pogo-Sticking in SEO Explained

Pogo-sticking in SEO is basically when a user searches for something on Google, clicks on a result, decides almost immediately that it is garbage, hits the back button, and clicks on a different result instead because the first one didn’t help them. It is a direct signal of dissatisfaction. 

Unlike a high bounce rate which might just mean someone found what they needed and left, pogo-sticking tells search engines that your page failed to answer the query. It is the digital equivalent of walking into a shop, smelling something bad, and walking right back out to the store next door.

I have been working in this industry for a long time. At Breakline, we have seen trends come and go for 15 years. But this one sticks. It sticks because it is about human behavior. It is not just some technical glitch you can patch over with a plugin. It is about people getting annoyed.

You might be wondering if this actually hurts your rankings. The short answer is yes. Indirectly or directly, it hurts. If people keep leaving your site to go to a competitor, Google eventually figures out that the competitor is better. It seems pretty logical when you think about it.

What actually is pogo-sticking?

Let’s strip away the jargon for a second. Imagine you are looking for a recipe for carbonara. You type it into Google. You click the first link. The page loads but it is covered in ads. A video starts playing automatically with the sound on. You can’t find the ingredients list because the author is writing a novel about their grandmother’s summer in Tuscany.

What do you do?

You hit back. You go to the second result. That is pogo-sticking. It gets its name from the physical action. You jump down to a page. You jump back up to the search results. You jump down to another page. Up and down. Like a pogo stick. It is a funny name for something that causes SEO professionals a lot of stress.

In the world of pogo-sticking in SEO, this behavior is a red flag. It screams that the user intent was not matched. I think that is the core of it really. Intent. If I search for “emergency plumber” and land on a page that is a generic article about “how to become a plumber”, I am leaving. I am pogo-sticking right out of there. I need a phone number, not a career guide. The search engine sees this quick return and takes note.

It might not be an official “penalty” in the manual sense, but it is a vote of no confidence from the user. And Google loves users more than it loves your website.

Is it the same as bounce rate?

No. And please don’t confuse them. I see clients panic about bounce rates all the time when they should be looking at pogo-sticking. Here is the difference.

A bounce happens when someone lands on your page and leaves without interacting further. They don’t click another internal link. They just close the tab or type in a new URL. But a bounce isn’t always bad. If I search for “what is the capital of Iceland” and your blog post says “Reykjavik” in big bold letters, I got my answer. I leave. I am happy. Google is happy. That is a bounce. But it is a satisfied bounce.

Pogo-sticking in SEO is different because of where the user goes next. They go back to the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) and click on a different result for the same query. That is the killer. It implies your content was not good enough to stop the search.

I remember looking at data for a client a few years back. Their bounce rate was 85%. They were freaking out. But when we looked closer, the time on page was four minutes. People were reading the whole article and then leaving. That is not pogo-sticking. That is just reading.

You have to look at the context. High bounce rate on a “Contact Us” page? Probably fine. They got the number & called. High bounce rate combined with short dwell time on a 3,000-word guide? That smells like pogo-sticking.

Why Google cares even if they say they don’t

This is where it gets a bit murky. Google’s John Mueller has said in the past that pogo-sticking is not a direct ranking signal. He says they don’t use it to rank search results directly. You can read more about how Google thinks on Google Search Central.

But here is the thing. I am skeptical of taking that at face value. Not because I think he is lying, but because of how algorithms work.

Google wants to show the best results. If everyone who clicks Position 1 comes back immediately and clicks Position 2, and then stays on Position 2 for ten minutes, the algorithm learns. It learns that Position 2 is the better answer. Over time, Position 2 moves up. Position 1 moves down. So maybe there isn’t a line of code that says `if pogo_sticking > 5% then rank_down`. But the machine learning models are designed to optimize for user satisfaction.

Pogo-sticking is the opposite of satisfaction. It is disappointment.

Steven Levy wrote about this in his book In The Plex. He talked about “short clicks”. Google engineers were obsessed with them. If people were coming back too fast, something was wrong. So whether you call it a direct factor or a user experience signal, the result is the same. You lose traffic.

Why people leave your site so fast

Okay so why are they leaving? Why are they bouncing back to the search results? Usually it is because you lied to them. That sounds harsh. I know. But think about your Title Tag and Meta Description.

If your title says “Ultimate Guide to Fixing a Leaky Tap in 5 Minutes” and the content is a 2000-word history of plumbing with no instructions, you lied. You set an expectation that you didn’t meet. Clickbait is a huge driver of pogo-sticking in SEO. You get the click, sure. But you lose the user instantly.

Another reason is speed. If your site takes 5 seconds to load, I am gone. I don’t have time for that. I am on my phone. I am in a hurry. I will hit back and try the next guy. He might be faster.

Then there is layout. I mentioned ads earlier. If I have to close three pop-ups before I can read the first sentence, I am annoyed. If the font is too small. If the contrast is bad. If the content is a giant wall of text with no breaks. Sometimes it is just that the content is thin. It looks like it was written by a robot. It doesn’t actually say anything new. It just repeats the keyword over & over again without adding value.

Users are smart. They can smell low-quality content from a mile away.

How to spot if you have a problem

The tricky part is that Google Analytics doesn’t have a “Pogo-Sticking” metric. It doesn’t tell you “Hey, this guy went back to Google”. You have to be a bit of a detective.

I look for a combination of high bounce rate and low time on page. If a page has a 90% bounce rate and an average time on page of 10 seconds, that is a disaster. That is pogo-sticking. People are landing, taking one look, and fleeing.

You can also use tools like Hotjar to see recordings of user sessions. It is painful to watch sometimes. You see the mouse move to the content, pause for a second, and then zip up to the back button. It hurts the ego, but it is necessary.

Another way to deduce this is by looking at your rankings. If you have a page that ranks well for a few days and then drops like a stone, it might be due to user signals. Google gave you a chance. You failed the audition. You got pogo-sticked into oblivion.

Check your organic traffic in Search Console. Look for pages with high impressions and clicks but low engagement. Those are your problem children. They are bringing people in but not keeping them.

Fixing the content mismatch

If you identify a page that is suffering from pogo-sticking in SEO, you need to fix it. The first step is to look at the search query. What are people actually asking?

If the keyword is “best running shoes for flat feet”, they want a list of shoes. They want reviews. They want prices. They do not want a 500-word intro about the history of running. Cut the fluff. Get to the point. Put the answer at the top.

This is where empathy comes in. Put yourself in their shoes. They are probably frustrated. They might be in pain. They want a solution. If you can provide that solution in the first paragraph, you win. They stay. They read more.

Sometimes you need to update old content. Maybe your article from 2018 is still ranking, but the information is outdated. The user sees “2018” in the date and leaves. Update it. Refresh it. Make it relevant for now.

You also need to make sure the format matches the intent. Some queries need a video. Some need a table. Some need a step-by-step guide. If you try to force a wall of text on a visual query, you will loose them. You have to accomodate their preferences.

I find that adding a Table of Contents helps a lot. It lets people skip to the part they care about. It gives them control. When people feel in control, they are less likely to leave.

The technical side of things

We can’t ignore the tech. You can have the best content in the world, written by Shakespeare himself, but if the font size is 10px and grey on white, nobody is reading it.

Mobile optimization is non-negotiable. Most searches happen on phones now. If your site requires pinch-and-zoom, you are dead in the water. That is an instant pogo-stick trigger for me personally.

Core Web Vitals are important here. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a big one. You know when you go to click a button and suddenly the page jumps and you click an ad instead? That is CLS. It is infuriating. It makes people leave. Fix your image dimensions. Reserve space for ads so the content doesn’t jump around.

And internal linking. This might sound counter-intuitive, but good internal linking can stop pogo-sticking. If a user lands on your page and realizes it is not exactly what they wanted, but they see a link to a related article that is what they want, they might click that instead of hitting back. You kept them on your site. You saved the session.

It is about creating a safety net. If the main attraction fails, offer a side show.

Future trends and AI

We have to talk about AI. With things like Google’s AI Overviews and SGE coming into play, the game is changing. Users might not even click a result at all. They might get the answer right there on the SERP. This is called a zero-click search.

But when they do click, their expectations will be higher. If they click through to your site, it means the AI summary wasn’t enough. They want depth. They want expertise. They want a human voice.

This makes pogo-sticking in SEO even more critical to avoid. If you are one of the few lucky clicks, you cannot afford to waste it. You need to provide something that an AI summarizer can’t. Personal experience. Unique data. A strong opinion.

I think we will see a shift where generic content gets crushed. If your article can be summarised in two sentences by a bot, why should anyone visit your site? They won’t. And if they do, they will bounce back immediately when they realize there is no depth there.

So, the bar for quality is going up. You need to be better than the machine. You need to be uncopyable.

The Bottom Line

Pogo-sticking is a reality check. It is the user telling you that you missed the mark. It hurts to see those metrics, but it is the best feedback you can get. It forces you to be better. It forces you to stop thinking about keywords and start thinking about people.

I have spent 15 years at Breakline watching algorithms shift and change, but the core principle remains the same. Help the user. If you help them quickly, efficiently, and honestly, they won’t pogo-stick. They will stay. They might even buy something.

So take a look at your high-traffic pages. Are you delivering on your promises? Or are you just luring people in and dissapointing them? Fix the experience, and the rankings will follow. It is simple, but it isn’t easy.