We refute myths: does CTR affect the ranking of sites in Google?

In a series of tweets, Google's SearchLiaison answered a question that linked CTR (click-through rates) and HCU (Helpful Content Update) to how Google ranks websites. He pointed out that if these ideas were true, no new website would be able to rank high.

"If HCU (Navboost, whatever you want to call it) is based on user clicks/reactions, how can sites that have been penalized by HCU hope to recover if they no longer serve Google users? @sundarpichai "Users are voting with their feet", ok I changed my whole site - let them vote!"

This tweet seems to link Pichai's statement to Navboost, user clicks and rankings. But as you'll see below, Sundar's claim that users vote "with their feet" has nothing to do with clicks or ranking algorithms. 🚀

• 📌 Sundar Pichai's statement that users vote "with their feet" has nothing to do with clicks or ranking algorithms.