How precious is a day, an hour, a minute? If you are married or in a relationship, wouldn’t you agree that every moment spent with that person holds meaning? A lack of time invested between two individuals is one of the main reasons why couples, both married and unmarried, fall apart. It takes time to build a bond. In the world of digital marketing, the same holds true. There’s a need for brands and consumers to form a relationship, and that requires an investment of time. Failure to do so may terminate what could be a long-lasting friendship.

And that’s an issue for many of today’s digital marketers. They are unable to hold the interests of their consumers long enough. Now let’s turn to you. Are you paying attention to the length of time in which visitors spend on your website? If not, it’s essential that you devote some effort into understanding the concept of dwell time and how you can improve your SEO efforts with it. Visitor traffic shouldn’t be your only indicator of how well your site performs. In fact, such an attitude can lead to a great amount of disappointment in the future.

A Look at Dwell Time

Whether you’re aware of it or not, the concept of dwell time has been in effect from the moment your site went live, right down to this very moment. As long as you have a website, it will remain an important factor. So it only makes sense to learn about it and make it work for you if you’re unfamiliar.

For a textbook definition of dwell time, you can describe it as a performance metric that measures user engagement, session duration, and SERP CTRs. There’s an ongoing debate as to whether we can call it a metric or not since it’s not straightforward. When one wants to determine dwell time, they usually have to make predictions based off of other metrics, such as bounce rate and time on site counts. That’s why many view it as a somewhat abstract concept. However, just about all digital marketing experts agree that it’s a real factor that has real impact on a website.

Why Dwell Time Deserves Your Attention

The hard and fast answer for why it matters rests with your search marketing efforts. The greater your dwell time, the better your SEO will rank. It’s that simple. When visitors spend time clicking links, reading your content and interacting with your pages, Google’s algorithms will recognize that your website holds value. The result will be higher SEO grading.

What Influences Dwell Time?

As mentioned earlier, dwell time is really a combination of other metrics that give a general impression of how long visitors spend on your page. Technically speaking, there are hundreds of factors that influence dwell time, some of which have nothing to do with your SEO efforts. A slow internet connection may turn a great website into one that’s a pain to load, and that would dissuade a visitor from spending further time. Other technical issues with one’s computer may cause them to lose interest in a website. So the list can go on. However, in the digital marketing realm, there are three key factors that contribute to your website’s dwell time measurement.

A Look at the 3 Main Factors:

• Session Duration – The first factor to consider is session duration. As you probably know, it’s the average amount of time that visitors spend on your website. Google Analytics presents this figure quite clearly for you, so that you don’t have to do any guesswork. You can even get more precise with this figure by viewing the numbers under Google Analytics’ “Engagement” tab.
• Bounce Rate – The second factor is bounce rate. It’s that dreaded yet illuminating metric that shows the percentage of people who leave your website after viewing just one page. For some, it’s hard to look at this figure, but it can give you a great deal of insight of how your site performs in terms of dwell time.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) – The third metric that factors into your dwell time is click-through rate (CTR). To be more specific, it’s wise to place emphasis on SERP CTRs. This is the frequency at which your site appears in the search results for any given query, and the amount of people who click when they see it. This is another tool that you can view with ease, by looking under your “Search Queries” tab.

You can identify your site’s dwell time with a fairly high amount of precision based on your session duration and bounce rate alone. In most cases, a session duration that lasts less than two minutes is poor, while one that lasts more than two minutes is good. Of course, it’s not a hard and fast rule due to variables such as time of day, keyword, and device of usage (i.e. smartphone, laptop, tablet). In terms of bounce rate, this number can vary as well but there is a standard guideline to look at. A bounce rate of 40% and under is good while one that’s 60 – 100% is poor. Anything from 40 – 60% is fair. Using these metrics can give you an overall impression of your website’s dwell time.

Steps for Improving Dwell Time

Fortunately, dwell time is something that you can improve, and dramatically so. It takes effort and you might even have to re-think your current strategies, but it’s not out of your reach. The key is to look at your site holistically, considering all aspects such as design, content, and navigation, so you can find weaknesses which need fixing. With that said, there are some standout issues which you should pay more attention to.

What to Consider for Better Dwell Time:

• Keyword Usage – Although there’s less emphasis on keyword use these days, it’s not a dying art. The right keywords make a difference, and they have the power to attract or repel visitors.
• User Experience – Slow load times, sloppy navigation, crashed pages – these glitches are annoying enough to push visitors away, and they won’t look back. So don’t hesitate to test your site for these problems as it can save your reputation from embarrassment among customers.
• Design & Aesthetics – Your website doesn’t have to look like an art gallery, but that doesn’t mean it should look like a dud either. The appearance of your site can make the difference between interest and apathy.

Make Every Moment Worthwhile

It’s common for couples to occasionally sit down and reflect on the state of their relationship. It calls for a lot of honesty and self-examination, but doing so can help them see how important it is to spend time together in the right fashion. After all, time appears to be our most limited yet precious resource. The same goes for your website. It’s important for you to make it not only informative, but engaging enough for visitors to build a desire to linger on it. By doing so, you can be sure that your dwell time will increase, and give rise to higher SEO rankings.