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WHAT IS DWELL TIME AND HOW DOES IT AFFECT SEO?

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Dwell time is just one of those phenomena we’ve heard of a lot in articles and social media pages. That said, for many people, this metric is greatly misunderstood.

Dwell time refers to the length of time visitors to your landing page spend reviewing content right before they switch tabs back to a SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

From a business perspective, a longer dwell time is ideal.  This is because visitors usually spend this time evaluating webpages they’ve clicked on to check whether they are able to answer the queries they had. If your website has a short dwell time, then, it probably means that a majority of visitors to your platform left dissatisfied.

On the flip side, if you register a lengthy dwell time, then, there’s high chance that your page satisfies the needs of a majority of visitors.

Dwell Time is Dynamic

Importantly, dwell time is not a universal standard. Certain websites like weather channels don’t need to have long dwell times. This is because checking out the weather is usually a quick process. As such, the metric around such websites usually takes this into account i.e. a short dwell time=satisfaction.

dwell time

Given this background, it’s easy to see just why dwell time is not a general concept. Rather, it a metric that’s currently used to hold value to rankings to some degree.

Importantly, it’s essence as a metric is relative. Whenever you consider the impact of dwell time, you need to think about a bunch of other factors. Zeroing in on it as the prime factor for your SEO campaign will not do you much good.

A digital marketing agency in London called ClickSlice says broader enhancements to your website like user interactivity can be worthier engagements. Once you improve how users perceive your website, then, the odds are that you may notice a spike in dwell time.

Does Dwell Time Affect SEO?

Google has not officially come to the fore with the news that dwell time actually impacts SEO. They’ve been tight-lipped about his topic and how it plays into their algorithm. Regardless of this, it’s worth noting that there’s good evidence that shows that dwell time significantly affects search rankings.

Since Google’s algorithm is heavily dependent on machine learning, it’s safe to say that factors like dwell time and bounce rate actually impact how websites are ranked in search results.

Even though there’s not much that Google lets come on about dwell time, there’s been some noticeable changes to the manner that the display search results. Not too long ago, they began offering the option to block results from specific URLs in the search results. Many experts in the SEO world believe that this new rule is based on users dwell time.

Once Google notices many visitors to a specific domain have a very short dwell time, then, they provide with the option of blocking results from that domain completely. By providing its users with this option, Google seems well intent on its ultimate objective, enhancing user experience on their mammoth platform.

A clear pointer to Google’s concerted efforts towards improving the overall user experience came with the introduction of the “People also search for” feature in SERPS.

Given what we know about dwell time, this makes absolute sense. Users who are looking to review other results are likely to have been displeased with what they found in the first try. By offering related searches to users, Google smartly caters to its users with an improved service.

As is evident already, Google actively monitors dwell time in order to enhance user experience. Given just how much time they’ve spent on developing their algorithms, there’s a good chance that dwell time is crucially important for marketers looking to land prospects.

dwell time seo

How to Boost Dwell Time

Dwell time is usually an indicator that people aren’t finding what they want on a webpage. If you have a website that registers low dwell time numbers, there’s plenty you can do to drive these numbers upwards.

Mobile Friendliness

Many users use mobile phones to browse the web. Some statistics have shown that a significant fraction, about 80%, of global internet usage is mobile. In light of this, it’s important for you to optimize your page for mobile users. Otherwise, visitors checking out your page may find themselves quickly going back to SERP and thereby registering a low dwell time.

Tags & Descriptions

To ensure that you get members of your target audience checking out your website, it’s essential to use the right title tags and descriptions that represent the content you have on your platform.

Load Time

If your website takes more than 3 seconds to load, then, there’s a very high chance people will abandon it for others. To avoid this scenario, you can try using Google’s PageSpeed Tools to ensure that your site loads super-fast.

 

 

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Callan Mullas
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