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Why Dwell Time Is an Important Ranking Factor

debbie
google

Google's ranking factors can sometimes seem like a mystery. In fact, thanks to the introduction of machine learning algorithms in the form of RankBrain in 2015, it's fair to say that parts of Google's algorithm are a mystery to themselves due to all the confusion. Google is constantly coming up with new updates in their algorithm, adding new ranking factors and tweaking the balance of old ones. Despite these circumstances, It appears that dwell time has a major impact on search engine rankings, and here’s why we believe so.




What is Dwell Time and Why Does it Matter?

Dwell time is the amount of time that someone spends on a web page before they return to the search results. Dwell time is so important because search engines use it to get an idea of whether a page was useful to the visitor or not. It’s a measure of engagement and tells the search engine how useful that page is. If a visitor leaves a site almost immediately, it may even hint that the page was broken in some way. If a visitor leaves a site after less than a minute, it's possible they couldn't find what they were looking for on it. Dwell times of two minutes or more imply that the site was useful and improves the chances that the page will rank higher. In general, the longer the dwell times, the better.


Dwell time should not be confused with bounce rate. While the dwell time is how long it takes for a person to go back to the search results after clicking on a link to your site, the bounce rate is expressed as a percentage. This percentage is based on how many people view just one page on your site before leaving. A person could have a dwell time of one hour and still be counted as a bounce if, after reading your page, they click the back button or close the page without traveling to another site page first.


There's also a third similar metric, time on page, that indicates how long a user spends on your page before going elsewhere. Any 'movement' counts for time on a page, whether that's back to the search results, on to another page on your site, or to another page they have bookmarked. But dwell time is only counted when someone goes from that page and back to search results.



How Does Google Use Dwell Time?

Google doesn't share a lot of information about how its ranking systems are coded. However, every now and then Google will make an announcement before updating its algorithm. It’s clear that dwell time is one of many things that is used to feed the Google Brain algorithm, and also a useful engagement metric for site owners to track in their own analytics. The longer the dwell time, the better the page is assumed to be by search engines.


Improving dwell time is a great start towards improving your rankings. And as marketing professionals, we know just what to do. If you follow these dwell time tips you will end up with a site that holds the attention of your users better, and that means a site that is more useful, more engaging, and highly relevant in the eyes of search engines:

Page Speed Test

Improve Site Speed

If your site takes more than a few seconds to load or if the browser needs to "re-draw" the screen repeatedly, making the page bounce around, will drive visitors away. Get your web developers to run a speed audit on your site and do everything they can to speed up the loading times. Even an improvement of a second or two will make a difference to your dwell times and may stop someone from leaving the page entirely out of impatience.



Use Engaging Images 

Another way to lengthen dwell time is to make sure your site has engaging images, such as infographics or charts, to encourage visitors to stop and look. While there's nothing wrong with text-heavy pages if that's what your visitors expect, having landing pages with infographics, tables, and other images that make it obvious what the page is about can be useful. If you summarize the key points of your page in a couple of images, visitors will be able to see at a glance that they're in the right place.


The length of time it takes a visitor to stop scrolling and ponder the content of an image could be the difference between your site's dwell time being considered "poor" by the search engines or being rated as "most likely relevant.” As a bonus, pages with high-quality images and infographics are more likely to be shared by visitors. This means more reach and more targeted traffic without having to rely on search engines for it.


FAQ's

Include FAQs on Important Pages

Including Frequently Asked Questions on key pages is a simple way to increase your dwell time, improve visitor satisfaction and also improve your ranking. Google pulls information straight from FAQ sections to populate structured snippets.


For best results, instead of simply putting your FAQs under H3 tags, use a FAQ plugin for your CMS or have your web designer set the page up so that the user has to click on the FAQ to expand the answer. This improves engagement as well as dwell time and could give you some useful information if you have a heatmap tool for your site. The more information you can gather about what people are clicking on and which FAQs they want answers to, the better armed you will be to improve the content of your site.



Break Up Long Content with Headings

Help visitors find what they are looking for by breaking up longer posts with eye-catching, clear headings. Searchers have something clear in mind when they visit a web page. Make it easy for them to determine that your page has what they are looking for. Ideally, your site should be easy to scroll through and scan for information. Break up your content with H2 and H3 tags and keep paragraphs smaller.



Keep Visitors on the Site with Internal Linking

Adding links to other relevant site pages within your content will keep the visitor on your site, making it appear to the search engines that the user is happy with the content you provide. Having a clear conversion funnel in mind when designing your site and linking content is crucial. Depending on the page the user lands on, and their likely search intent, you may be aiming to have the visitor subscribe to your mailing list, join your site as a free member, or make a purchase. Even the words that you link to another page will have an impact on SEO. Link using targeted keywords for the page that the visitor is going to.



Ask Questions and Drive Engagement

Encourage users to leave a comment or fill out your contact form. The time they take to do this will increase dwell time even further. Additionally, if a user provides their contact details and signs up for a mailing list while they're engaging with your content, it becomes easier for you to get them to visit your site again in the future.



Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

The idea of designing for mobile devices first is something that has been pushed quite heavily in the SEO world for a few years now. Mobile devices have a bigger market share worldwide than desktop devices and account for just over 50% of all web traffic. Consumers often search for information about products and services on their mobile devices, then complete the purchase at a later date on their desktop or laptop. If your site is not easy for mobile users to navigate, you could be losing out on a lot of customers and harming your search rankings along the way.


Sites that are hard to read or slow to load on mobile devices will have a poorer than average dwell time. There's no excuse for this in a world where responsive themes are readily available and page speed testing tools can help you identify bottlenecks in your page loading times. Making your site mobile-friendly is necessary to receive high dwell times from mobile users.

Mobile Friendly

Think Like a Customer

Your website is a portal to provide your customers with the information and services they are interested in. Personal blogs can be used to show off your ideas or present the things that you would like customers to see. Your business website is meant to present what your customers want.


It's easy for business owners to get so focused on "the industry" that they present their products and services as if they're talking to others in the industry. This isn't an effective way to sell, and it's not an effective way to hold on to website visitors either. If you're struggling to improve your dwell times, try some market research and A/B testing to learn what your customers really want from your site.



Realize That SEO is an Ongoing Effort

Google is constantly updating its ranking factors and dwell time is only one of them. To get on top of the SERPs, and stay there, you will need to invest in SEO continuously. Monitor your Google Analytics and other statistics and pay attention to what your visitors are showing you with their search habits. Then make improvements based on the data you gather.



Need Help Improving Dwell Time? Contact ClickReady Marketing

As you’ve probably read, a lot of factors go into dwell time and improving search engine rankings. We understand that this can be a hassle for anyone that’s busy with a whole other workload. If you're not sure where to start, or you'd like some advice on how to improve your site's dwell time, call ClickReady Marketing. Our team of Georgia SEO Marketing specialists are here to guide you and help you maximize your website's traffic. Contact us today to learn about personalized marketing plans and get a free quote.


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