The amount of time a user spends on a website, known as dwell time, is a crucial but often misinterpreted site metric. While many marketers rely heavily on Time on Page to assess traffic, this metric can be deceptive and unreliable.

This blog post aims to clarify what dwell time entails, explore its potential use as a ranking signal by search engines, and provide actionable strategies to enhance the average dwell time on your website.

Defining Dwell Time

The concept of dwell time was first introduced three years ago by Duane Forrester from Bing in a a blog post on crafting high-quality content. In essence, dwell time represents the duration a visitor spends on a webpage before navigating back to the search engine results page (SERP). A longer dwell time generally indicates that the visitor found the content engaging and informative enough to consume most, if not all, of it before returning to the SERPs or taking other actions on the site.

Differentiating Bounce Rate from Actual Bounce Rate

Before delving further, it’s crucial to distinguish between bounce rate and actual bounce rate, as dwell time is intricately linked to bounce rate.

Platforms like Google Analytics rely on two clicks (an entrance and an exit click) to precisely calculate Time on Page. Without that crucial second click, even if a visitor spends 25 minutes on a page before leaving, it’s misconstrued as a bounce. This discrepancy highlights the difference between bounce rate and actual bounce rate. A visit lasting a mere six seconds is undeniably an actual bounce, indicating the visitor quickly deemed the content irrelevant. Conversely, a visitor spending nearly half an hour engrossed in a captivating long-form article doesn’t constitute an actual bounce. This explains why certain high-ranking pages with exceptional content might appear to have elevated bounce rates. Their standard bounce rates might be high, but their actual bounce rates are not. Therefore, dwell time proves to be a more dependable indicator of a page’s quality and relevance compared to bounce rate, which some marketers find overly simplistic and unreliable. This begs the question: How do search engines utilize dwell time?

Dwell Time as a Ranking Signal: Fact or Fiction?

For years, SEOs have fiercely debated whether search engines, particularly Google, factor dwell time into their ranking algorithms. While Google remains characteristically evasive about specific metrics within its algorithms, the introduction and subsequent removal of a specific feature suggest that dwell time might indeed play a role. This feature allowed users to block all results from certain domains.

It is widely believed that Google employed dwell time to decide whether to offer the option of blocking a domain from search results. While the exact threshold remains shrouded in mystery, logically, a shorter dwell time would likely trigger the block option, as it significantly improved user experience – Google’s ultimate objective (aside from generating substantial revenue, naturally). Further evidence suggesting Google’s attention to dwell time as a ranking factor was the “More by” feature in search results.

This function was closely tied to authorship. Content creators with verified authorship who consistently published articles boasting extended dwell times seemingly received preferential treatment in search results, enjoying higher rankings and the coveted “More by” links beneath their main search result. While authorship continues to hold weight as a social signal, Google has, regrettably, retired both the “More by” and domain blocking features, despite their utility. Nevertheless, Forrester’s assertion that dwell time serves as a reliable indicator of a page’s content quality and relevance to users should not be disregarded. Such direct hints from search engines regarding specific metrics influencing their algorithms are rare. For now, the question of whether dwell time is a definitive ranking signal remains unanswered. However, personally, I lean towards believing it is.

Strategies to Boost Dwell Time

Having established the significance of dwell time and its potential role as a ranking signal, let’s explore actionable techniques to increase it on your site. It’s worth noting that you should already be implementing at least three of the following four strategies, regardless of your focus on dwell time. There’s no magic formula for increasing dwell time, but incorporating these techniques can enhance your content’s “stickiness.”

Prioritize High-Quality Content

The most fundamental step to improve dwell time is to create exceptional content. After all, compelling content naturally captivates readers and encourages them to linger. Whether it’s blog posts, infographics, or videos, good content possesses these key characteristics:

• Usefulness: Providing actionable advice or valuable information.
• Entertainment: Engaging readers through humor, unique perspectives, or surprising elements.
• Accessibility: Ensuring readability through scannable formats, conversational tone, and well-structured design. We’ve published a wealth of resources on creating outstanding content. If your blog isn’t performing optimally, exploring those resources can provide valuable insights. Remember, superior content entices visitors to stay longer, naturally boosting dwell time.

Implement Robust and Logical Internal Linking

Since dwell time measures the time spent on a page before returning to the SERPs, it’s strategic to offer users additional actions upon finishing your content. By preemptively addressing potential follow-up questions or suggesting related topics, you provide a seamless user experience. This is where internal linking proves invaluable. Furthermore, internal linking is fundamental for SEO. A weak internal linking strategy can hinder your site’s ranking as search engine crawlers might struggle to thoroughly index all your pages.

Leverage Effective Engagement Tactics

Similar to internal links, engagement strategies like content recommendations can entice visitors to stay longer. Suggesting relevant articles provides a compelling reason for readers to remain engaged with your site. Implementing this tactic effectively, particularly by suggesting closely related articles, increases the likelihood of readers clicking through and staying absorbed in your content. After all, why would they return to the SERPs if they can effortlessly explore other topics of interest within your site?

Embrace a ‘Pageless’ Scrolling Design

Another technique to elevate dwell time is adopting a “pageless” or continuous scrolling design for your webpages. However, while infinitely scrolling pages can enhance user experience, improper implementation can harm SEO. Search engine crawlers aren’t the brightest and often struggle to replicate human behavior like clicking or scrolling. Those silly robots!

Fortunately, there’s a straightforward solution. To aid crawlers in indexing scrolling pages effectively, divide the page into paginated sections. Each section should have a similar