Dwell time is the duration of time a searcher spends on a web page after clicking on the link in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) before then returning to the list of search results.
Why is Dwell Time Important?
Google (and other search engines) are always seeking to elevate good quality content and decrease the number of pages providing poor user experience.
For this reason, dwell time is often determined as a ranking factor because it is an indicator of the quality of a page.
If a user clicks off a web page immediately (~2 seconds) the bots can infer that a page didn’t deliver on content or relevancy.
If a user clicks off after a few minutes (~ 2 minutes) the bots can infer that the page had some useful and relevant information, but the searcher didn’t get everything they needed or wanted.
If a user stays on a page for over 10 minutes the bots can infer that a page had good quality content, relevant to the searchers’ query.
Common Misconceptions about Dwell Time
There’s a lot of confusion out there about dwell time, and it’s not surprising, the world of SEO is a confusing place. Below are some common misconceptions about dwell time.
1. It’s the Same as Bounce Rate
Bounce rate is in fact the percentage of single page sessions divided by all of the sessions on a website.
2. It's the Same as Average Time on Page
This is actually different to dwell time, although often used interchangeably. Dwell time can not be calculated if a person has found your site through an external link, such as Facebook or LinkedIn. It is calculated from SERPSback to SERPS.
3. It’s the Same as Click Through Rate
Click Through Rate is determined by how many searchers click on your website, out of the total number who saw the website come up on SERPs.
What Factors Affect Dwell Time?
There are lots of factors that affect dwell time. A website creator must keep these in mind and address them to ensure their website has a high dwell time. Some of these factors include:
There are a few golden rules to follow to increase dwell time on your site, and increase your ranking.
1. Create Compelling and Engaging Content
This may sound simple, but there are a lot of factors contributing to quality content. It must be relevant, well researched, original, free of errors and frequently updated.
2. Responsiveness and Good UX
Websites must load quickly, be mobile friendly, and have a good website design that is easy to navigate.
3. Relevant Title Tags and Insightful Meta Descriptions
These will help to initially draw in users. But, make sure they accurately describe your brand and its content. Include keywords and CTA.
Tools To Help Increase Dwell Time
To increase dwell time, you need to write insightful meta descriptions and create engaging content. Here are some tools to help you do this.
AccuRanker is a keyword ranking tool that offers solutions to help businesses create great meta descriptions. This tool helps users track keywords daily and on-demand, and sends them regular updates of all their rankings in SERPs.
The high-ranking keywords can then be placed in meta descriptions to increase visibility and boost click-through rates.
AccuRanker also has a SERP History feature that shows users the search engine attributes that attract traffic to a website. These attributes can be used to optimize meta descriptions and drive users to a website.
SE Ranking is a cloud-based SEO platform that offers a wide array of tools that help users write powerful meta descriptions.
It offers a Keyword Research and Suggestion Tool that analyses keywords and provides important metrics like search volume, difficulty score and competitor ranking. These insights can be used to pinpoint high-performing keywords that users can include in meta descriptions.
SE Ranking also offers an On-Page SEO Checker that analyses titles, headings, subheadings and meta descriptions to check how optimized they are for relevant search queries.
KWFinder is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps businesses find keywords that have high search volumes and low SEO difficulty. users can use these valuable keywords to strengthen their meta descriptions.
This tool provides SERP analysis to show you which keywords you should target. It also shows you your competitors’ rankings and assesses your potential to outrank them. You can also get relevant information about search intent and why visitors searched for a particular phrase or term.
Depending on the keywords you use, KWFinder will show you how much organic traffic potential your website has. You can compare this data to your SEO and ranking goals and tweak your meta descriptions to improve the performance of your website.
SEOprofiler is a cloud-based marketing tool that helps businesses improve website ranking and attract more traffic. This tool provides data on the changes in search volume over time and which keywords are worth focusing on when constructing meta descriptions or creating content.
This tool suggests keywords from its database of about 250 million search terms. It also provides details about cost-per-click (CPC), related phrases and the probability of ranking high in SERPs for that keyword.
SEOprofiler also has an on-page optimization tool that helps users create web content that follow white-label SEO practices.
Tools for Creating and Optimising Compelling and Engaging Content:
Surfer SEO is a tool designed to help users optimize web content. It works by evaluating the content of a page against over 500 on-page signals.
This tool analyzes the first page of SERPs for a target keyword and gives you data on average word count, keyword density, partial match keywords, alt text, and hidden content, amongst other data.
There's a Content Editor which helps you outline and write SEO-optimized content. The Content Planner helps users generate a relevant content strategy. It prepares a plan adjusted to your niche, domain and target audience. This way, you’ll be able to get great content ideas.
Dashword
Dashword is a tool that helps users grow their organic traffic by showing them how to improve their content.
This tool gives you a list of all the important topics you should include in your content. It also helps you discover the questions and answers your readers are looking for. You can also discover how your content measures up compared to high-ranking content, and get tips on how to improve it.
Other tools: Growthbar, Frase.
How Can We Help?
Looking to improve users’ dwell time on your own site? You should contact us, we could pair you with a super competent team to send you in the right direction.
If you’re not quite ready to spend, you could try one of our training courses instead and implement all that you learn tomorrow!
