What is 'Dwell Time' and Why Does it Matter for an SEO Strategy?

Take Your SEO Efforts to a New Level in 2022

In this post, we'll explore an often-overlooked SEO concept: Dwell time.

Let’s start with the basics.

What is Dwell Time in SEO?

The easiest way to explain dwell time is through an example.

Let’s say your website is already ranking highly on Google (congratulations!) and users have a tendency to click on it, giving you a good CTR.

When they enter your site, they may find that it’s hard to navigate, or that the title tag is clickbait, so the on-page content is absolutely irrelevant to them.

In that case, what is a user to do?

Most commonly, they’ll just leave your site and return to the search result pages.

"Dwell time" refers to just that: It’s the amount of time a user spends on your website, before going back to the SERPs, clicking an outbound link, or closing the tab.

If your users spend just a couple of seconds on your site before leaving, they’re signaling to Google that your content isn’t as promising as it seems. So, sooner or later, low dwell time will impact your SERP positioning.

Is Dwell Time the Same as Bounce Rate?

If you’re working with an SEO team, or you’ve been studying SEO, you may have heard about bounce rates. After reading the definition of dwell time, you may be wondering whether these two concepts are the same.

In short, no. There’s a slight but very important difference between Dwell Time and Bounce Rate.

A bounce rate is the percentage of users that leave your site after visiting a single URL. For example, let’s say a blog post on your site has 100 visits.

Out of these 100 visits, 30 users will click on one of your CTAs and continue navigating your site. The other 70 users will just leave after reading your blog post. In that case, your bounce rate would be 70%.

Anything above 50% is considered a high bounce rate.

A bounce rate of 50% or less is considered reasonable. And a bounce rate below 20% is probably a miscalculation.

The greatest downside of having a high bounce rate is that you’re probably not getting users to where you want them to be. For instance, they visit your blog posts but don’t move to your transactional pages.

How to Increase Dwell Time on Your Site

Now that we’ve reviewed some key concepts, let’s dive into actionable tips. How can you prevent users from just leaving your site after a few disappointing seconds?

Experts suggest:

• Improving your website’s design.
• Making your content more scannable.
• Offering value as soon as possible.
• Enriching your content with images & videos.

Implement Meta Data Writing Best Practices

Some users will leave because your meta title and the description promise something that your website doesn’t provide.

For example, let’s say you run a SaaS company developing a project management solution. And let’s say you’ve created a landing page targeting the keyword ‘free project management tool’, even though you don’t provide a free plan. In that case, as soon as users access your site, they’ll find that you’re not offering what they’re looking for.

Finding a way to stand out in the SERPs without overpromising is key. Apply title tag writing best practices, such as: 

• Knowing your content’s competitive advantages & focusing on them.
• Make sure you’re formatting your title tags correctly with an SEO plugin or tool
• Writing with the users’ needs in mind.
• Saying no to keyword stuffing: Use your keywords strategically.

Improve Your Design

Never underestimate the value of a good first impression. In some instances, users will 'bounce' because they find your website hard or uncomfortable to navigate. This may especially be the case if the user is on mobile and your site is not responsive. 

Test your website’s usability, analyze your competitors’ websites, and take concrete measures to elevate your site to your industry’s standards.

Make Your Content More Scannable

In some cases, users will leave your website quickly because they can’t detect whether it has the answers they need, at first sight.

Endless paragraphs with long sentences may seem overwhelming. 

Content writers and SEO experts often talk about making content “scannable”. Scannable content is content that’s structured in a way that makes it easy for users to understand what it’s about, even if they’re not reading it word-by-word. 

You can make your content more scannable by:

• Make your sentences shorter.
• Use subheadings (H2, H3s, and H4s) to fragment your content by sub-topic.
• Using a readability checker such as Hemingway.
• Turning long sentences into lists, whenever possible.
• Using images & audiovisual content.

Give Value as Soon as Possible

A great way to increase dwell time is by confirming to users that they made the right decision when they entered your site. How?

By making your hero section/blog post introduction as engaging and valuable as possible.

Along these lines, there’s a best practice referred to as “the PPT formula”. PPT stands for “Preview, Proof, Transition”.

Basically, it suggests that the best way to hook users is by providing them with three key elements, above the fold (before they scroll down):

• A preview of your content.
• Proof that your content will do what it promises.
• A transition to the rest of the article.

Additionally, to prevent users from leaving your website before they enjoy your content, don’t include outbound links above the fold. 

Add Audiovisual Content

Video is universally viewed as the most engaging time of digital content.

And, according to research by Wistia, users spend 2.6x more time on pages with video content, compared to pages without video content. 

Adding video content to your site can make your users stick around for longer. Additionally, this type of content could also impact your conversion rates. As a 2018 survey by Brightcove found:

• 76% of consumers report having purchased a product/service after viewing a video.
• 62% of Millennials find it important for companies to share product information through video content.

Key Takeaways

In this post, we took a look at dwell time. Improving your site’s dwell time can have positive consequences for both your SEO and your conversion rate.

There isn’t an infallible formula for increasing your dwell time. But reviewing your site’s UX, analyzing your meta title & description from your user’s point of view, and optimizing your content can go a long way.