What Is Dwell Time and Why It Is Important for SEO?

Dwell Time is a metric that has stayed in the shadows for a real long time. While some people consider it to be an important factor that influences the ranking of a page, there are many with counter-arguments too. Moreover, there are even confusions with Bounce Rate and Time On Page.

After the pandemic, the rise of digital marketing platforms and opportunities have made people more determined to rank better in the Search Engine Result Page (SERP). Improvements in the algorithms of search engines like Bing and Google have made searching the suitable and relevant content easy for the viewers.

Thus, it becomes really important to learn about the metrics like Dwell Time. So, let us take a dive and see what this metric is all about.

Actual Meaning of ‘Dwell’

The word ‘Dwell’ basically means ‘living at a place’. There are plenty of synonyms, which might lead you to somewhere else but let’s focus on the basic meaning.

So, if we translate ‘Dwell Time’, it simply becomes the ‘amount of time spent in a specific place’. That is the start of the most common confusion between the Time On-Page and Dwell Time.

What is Dwell Time?

Whenever people go to a search engine and search for specific keywords, they are directed towards the search engine result page. Then they click on their preferred website and access the content of the page.

The time a user spends on that website before coming back to the SERP is known as Dwell Time, among the SEO community.

What is the Difference Between Bounce Rate, Time On-Page, and Dwell Time?

People, who dismiss the theory of Dwell Time being an impactful aspect of website ranking, have always vouched for the Time On Page or Bounce Rate. So let’s take a look at what they are;

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is one of the most important factors that not only determines the relevancy of a web page but also how interesting the content is. It generally signifies the rate of visitors, who leave the website without taking any action. Bounce Rate differs from website to website.

For example, if 50 out of 100 people leave the payment checkout page without performing any action, then the bounce rate of that particular page will be 50%.

Whether it is easy-to-use or lacks cohesiveness or just simply does not have relevant content, Bounce Rate enables you to learn about the pages of the website.

Time-On Page

Time-on Page is a metric that helps us to understand the time users spend on a particular page. The relevancy of the content, ease of navigation, and the overall interactiveness of the page are some of the factors to be determined by Time-on Page.

Difference Between Bounce Rate, Dwell Time, and Time-On Page

Since you are now aware of the three, it is time to understand what makes them different. First of all, these three metrics help us determine different factors of ranking.

Bounce Rate tells about the exact page, where users lose interest, but Dwell Time is concerned with the overall time spent on that website.

Hang on, Time-on Page is different from Dwell Time too. Even though both of them are concerned with the time, they have a critical difference.

While Time-on Page is about the time spent on a page, Dwell Time is the time spent on the website before coming back to the search results.

Reason Behind the Popularity of Dwell Time

Dwell Time came into the limelight and sparked debate among the SEO community when Microsoft’s senior manager, Duane Forrester released an article on Microsoft’s Bing Webmasters Blog about the topic of how to produce quality content and mentioned the word ‘Dwell Time’.

Google is also a part of this race. Even though they do not specifically mention if Dwell Time influences the ranks or not, some indications assure organic position in the SERP and Dwell Time have some sort of relations. In a study, Moz revealed the same.

Factors that Influences Dwell Time

The significance of Dwell Time is quite high, and if you are looking to improve your rankings in the SERP, then 2021 is the right time that you start giving importance to it. So, if you are looking for ways to improve the Dwell Time, then below mentioned factors are going to aid you.

Irrelevant Content

Dwell Time is never influenced by the number of visits but is influenced by the relevancy of the page. Irrelevant and unengaging content is always boring and makes the user leave with disappointment which in turn leads to lower Dwell Time.

Thus, make sure your content on the landing page is relevant, engaging, and does not contain only a clickbait title.

Longer Load Times

Always consider your viewers to be impatient. Higher waiting time will make sure that visitors leave even without seeing the content and engaging with it. Redesigning websites and optimizing the loading speed are always rewarding and can lead to higher Dwell Time.

Too Many Ads and Pop-up Windows

Visiting a store and seeing only ads before finding the product is not a very pleasant experience for buyers. Same with the websites too. If users visit a website and get spammed with ads and pop-up windows, they will try to leave the website as soon as possible.

Quality Internal Links

Dwell Time is based on the journey of a user from SERP to SERP. An increase in the time he/she spends on your website will increase the Dwell Time. That’s why, if you want higher Dwell Times, work on internal linkings.

If your content is relevant, interesting, and have the right internal links, you are bound to get higher Dwell Times.

Pageless Design and Mobile Friendliness

Scrolling up and down on a single page is more engaging than going through multiple pages. Even there is a blog from google that suggests the importance of pageless scrolling.

Moreover, websites must be mobile-friendly as well. The surge in usage of mobile is significantly increasing day-by-day, and it is becoming important for websites to be updated with the trend. Mobile users will leave the website instantaneously if it is not hard to interpret.

Conclusion

SEO is an important tool for everyone looking to make their organic rankings higher. So, the next time you strategize your approach with SEO, consider the Dwell Time as an important aspect.

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