[Nextgrid]

Google search result links don’t link to the site directly but go through a Google-provided redirect that presumably has a reference to the original search query.

If you were to go back to the same search result page and click on another result within a short timeframe they will assume you “bounced”.

They also have Google Analytics littering the majority of the web, so I’m assuming that gives them a signal as well.

[websitejanitor]

It's more complicated than this.

Google links directly to search results now, they stopped using the tracking redirect years ago. They probably track clicks and scrolling directly on the SERP with JS.

Google Analytics is absolutely not used for ranking purposes. GA is far too unreliable and gameable to be used for anything like that. It's more likely that Chrome and Google Safe Browsing are used for tracking user hits.

[DeathArrow]

But website began splitting small articles in 20 pages you have to click trough instead of scroll and they disable back button.

I rather open a new tab from search results and close it instead of clicking the link and going back. I imagine many people do that.