This afternoon, I Googled the best guitar for beginners. When the search results page loaded, I took my sweet time clicking through the first page of various e-commerce sites to find the guitar of my dreams.
When I couldn’t find the right product in my price range, I clicked back to that search results page to explore further. I clicked and clicked until I hit the bottom of the page, but then I refined my online search and started the process again.
Little did I know back then, but my online activity was actually contributing to an important user engagement metric — dwell time. So, what is dwell time? Let’s find out.
Dwell Time Explained
Dwell time is an engagement metric that measures how much time a visitor spends on a webpage after clicking a link on a search engine result page (SERP) but before returning to the SERP results.
For instance, when I clicked on a search result for ‘best guitar for beginners’ and spent time browsing through the product descriptions and comparing prices, I was contributing to the dwell time for that specific webpage. You probably do this everyday. The more time you spend on the page, the higher the dwell time becomes.
The value or importance of this engagement metric to a search engine like Google should be obvious. Dwell time indicates how well or poorly your content engages and resonates with your audience. It is important in determining searcher satisfaction.
What is the Average Dwell Time? How Much Time Users Spend on Most Websites
Usually, a visitor takes 2 to 4 minutes to explore a site and its layout. The industry benchmark for average dwell time is therefore considered somewhere between 2-4 minutes. Website visitors typically stay on a single page for about 54 seconds.
Different kinds of websites may have varying dwell times. Let’s consider blog websites. They often have average dwell times ranging between 2 and 5 minutes. In contrast, e-commerce websites are more likely to have shorter dwell times, usually between 1 and 3 minutes, because of quicker browsing behavior.
How to Increase Dwell Time on Your Website
There’s no magic formula or guaranteed way to improve dwell times. Your overarching goal should be to improve the overall user experience and prioritize the delivery of useful and relevant content on your pages.
You can use the following best practices and tips to improve dwell time.
- Ensure your site loads quickly by optimizing images, compressing files, and minimizing HTTP requests. Another option is to leverage browser caching.
- Create high-quality and engaging content that appeals to your target audience. If you run an e-commerce site, detailed product descriptions and engaging multimedia content such as videos are some great ways to keep your audience hooked. Here are a few other tips to consider:
- Create action-oriented content
- Include facts, stats, and links to credible sources
- Use bullets and lists to emphasize key points
- Use subheads
- A simple yet effective way to optimize dwell time is to enable comments or discussions on your website. Forums can also foster community interaction on your site.
- Design a simple-to-navigate layout that reduces clutter and confusion. Clear menus, categories, and logical organization help visitors find what they are looking for. Here are a couple of other tips:
- Ensure that the colors align with your branding
- Use PNG or JPEG format
- Customize the names of image files
- Optimize alt tags
Is Long Dwell Time Always Good?
The more time your visitors spend consuming or engaging with the content of a webpage they clicked to visit, the more likely it is that page satisfied their needs.
However, if you’ve been following along, you may realize that it is a generalization. This is because we could poke so many edge-case scenario holes in this theory. However, it applies in the broadest sense.
Consider the Context
The nature or type of the content can impact dwell time expectations. Visitors will naturally spend more time on educational content or detailed articles than product pages on e-commerce websites. Hence, long dwell times on a product page may indicate confusion and frustration rather than satisfaction.
Lost in the Maze
In some cases, a visitor may stay on your page longer because of difficulty finding the product or information they need. This can lead to frustration rather than positive engagement.
Let’s say I’m looking for a guitar, and I can’t find the relevant category on your website. I may spend more time clicking around and getting frustrated. I will eventually leave without finding what I’m looking for.
This indicates that while users are staying on the webpage for longer periods, they are not achieving their intended goals.
So, while a long dwell time is usually a positive indicator of engagement and user satisfaction, the opposite is broadly true as well.
Increase Your Website’s Dwell Time and Boost Your Search Rankings
There are numerous ways to measure and assess the success of your SEO campaign, and one of these metrics is dwell time. Many of the key elements that improve dwell time are a standard part of fundamental on-page SEO. By understanding dwell time and how it can affect your online presence, you can devise better strategies to improve user experience.
