Dwell time: the most important indicator that many people don't use | Weboptim
Dwell time is one of the most important site indicators, but unfortunately it is often misunderstood. Many marketers place too much hope in the "time on page" metric, but this metric can be unreliable and misleading.
What is dwell time?
Dwell time is the actual length of time a visitor spends on the page before returning to the search engine. Theoretically, the longer this time the better, as it means that the visitor will view/read most of the content on the page before returning or performing other actions.
Reversal rate and effective reversal rate
What is the difference? Residence time is closely linked to the return rate. In Google Analytics, you can determine the exact time spent on a page - including the number of entries and exits - with just two clicks. But equally important is the actual bounce rate. A session where a visitor arrives on the page, stays for 25 minutes and then leaves will be counted as a return visit, even if it is clearly not.
A session of 6 seconds is obviously an actual reversal. This happens when a visitor arrives, sees almost immediately that the page or content is not what they are looking for and therefore bounces. However, a visit where the user arrives, spends almost half an hour reading, before leaving the page, is not an actual return.
This is why some pages that are ranked well by Google and have excellent content have a high bounce rate. These are not actual bounce rates, but high standard bounce rates.
Therefore, dwell time is a more reliable indicator of page quality and relevance. Some marketers find it too simplistic to be a reliable index number. But what do search engines do with dwell time data?
A dwell time ranking factor?
The question of whether dwell time is used by search engines as a ranking factor has been the subject of long SEO debates for years.
Although Google remains tight-lipped about ranking factors, some features suggest that dwell time is a ranking factor.
The general perception is that Google determines whether it can block pages on the search results page based on dwell time. Obviously, the exact threshold remains a mystery, but it goes without saying that shorter dwell times may result in blocking, in order to enhance the user experience.
Another sign that Google is watching the dwell time indicator is the additional articles feature in searches. This feature is closely related to authorship. Monitored content producers publish articles with a long dwell time indicator, which the bots reward with a higher ranking in the SERPs and under the 'More articles' link you can find primary search results.
Regardless of this, do not forget that dwell time can be used to reliably infer the quality and relevance of a site's content from the users' perspective.
The question of whether dwell time is a definitive ranking factor remains unanswered.
How can we improve the length of stay?
Now that we know what dwell time is and why we should pay attention to it as a ranking factor, how can we increase it? There's no magic bullet that will increase it, but there are techniques that can be used to make your content more 'sticky'.
Make better content
The first suggestion to increase dwell time is to produce better content. After all, no one will stay if we don't have good content, right?
Whether it's blog posts, infographics, videos, good content:
- useful (teaches or prompts action)
- fun (funny, unusual, surprising)
- accessible (well-designed, interactive)
If you've written a lot of good content, but the blog isn't performing as well as it should, don't worry, write killer content. The better the content, the more likely visitors are to stay on the site, thus increasing dwell time.
Use strong, logical internal links
As dwell time is measured between arriving on the site and returning to the search results, it is worth encouraging users to take further steps within the site once they have finished reading the content. The result is a better user experience.
Of course, internal links are also essential to maximise SEO. Without strong, logical internal links, your website may suffer in the rankings because search engines will not be able to index the entire website.
Use better engagement tactics
As well as internal links, other articles and pages can encourage visitors to stay on the site and thus engage, such as content recommendation.
If we recommend a relevant article to readers, we strongly encourage them to stay on the site. This tactic can be very effective if implemented correctly, and the more closely the recommended articles are linked to a piece of content that users are reading, the longer they will stay on the page through clicks. After all, if the visitor's interest is piqued by several other topics without returning to the search results, why not stay?
Introducing rolling design
Another technique to increase dwell time is to create a scrollable design for your website.
While infinite scrolling can be useful for the user experience, if used incorrectly, it can harm SEO. This is because search engine robots are dumb and can't always replicate user behaviour like clicking or scrolling. Dumb bots.
Fortunately, there is a practical solution that doesn't involve much work. In order to allow the robots to index the scrollable page, the page needs to be broken down into different sections. Each section should have a title tag, and a rel="next" and rel="prev" attribute in atag.
Whether or not the residence signal is a ranking factor, increasing the number of visitors is only an advantage. Doing the above can make your site more attractive, improving the user experience and potentially increasing conversions.
Source: wordstream.com