One of the common misconceptions I’ve been hearing every now and then is that CTR will never become a ranking factor since it’s extremely easy to manipulate.
However, it’s easy to render this argument invalid if we do some research.
First, if we get back to the patent we discussed earlier, we will find that Google is well aware of the possible fraudulent clicks issue. They even described the safeguards against spammers:
“Note that safeguards against spammers (users who generate fraudulent clicks in an attempt to boost certain search results) can be taken to help ensure that the user selection data is meaningful, even when very little data is available for a given (rare) query. These safeguards can include employing a user model that describes how a user should behave over time, and if a user doesn’t conform to this model, their click data can be disregarded.”
Second, we must keep in mind that Google already has the mechanisms in place that help successfully detect and fight click fraud on the Google Ads platform.