What Is SEO Dwell Time and How Can We Increase It [2024 Update]

What is Dwell time in SEO is a question every marketer and SEO professional needs to find out because the SEO dwell time is an important metric for Google ranking for your website. SEO Dwell time is the total amount of time a prospect spend on your website before leaving for Search Engine Result pages. Once they search something related to your business and land on your website and linger there for sometime and rush back to SERP results without spending much time can be a classic SEO dwell time example. In this blog, you will find out how can you increase your dwell time and get maximum online exposure for your venture.

What is Dwell time in SEO?

What is dwell time in SEO is an important question and its answer has a profound effect on your website ranking. It is easy to misunderstand dwell time vs bounce rate but they both are similar but unique. Dwell time as we have seen is the total amount of time a target or prospect spends on a website and the bounce rate is when a person reaches your site and goes back without exploring the site. SEO dwell time increase indicates that your website is worth reading and you get the best ranking for Google. 

Why Dwell time matters in SEO?

SEO dwell  time indicates the following:

• Your site has a great user experience and user-friendliness
• Your site’s content is intriguing 
• Your site’s content is of high quality and meets search intent
• Your site’s page loading speed is optimal
• Your site’s design and content contribute to user satisfaction
• Your site’s design and content optimised for Search engine optimization

Therefore, you cannot miss potential prospects or existing customers just because your site is not good enough to visit and linger on. Dwell time SEO as a metric has to be taken seriously and dwell time optimization is the key thing to do. 

Factors contribute to dwell time SEO

By reading each factor, you will get an idea of why the question of ‘ what is dwell time in SEO’ matters. 

• Your niche – Your business niche also determines how much time each visitor spends on your site. If it is related to technical, only a few people can decipher more details on your site and vice versa. 

• The type of content – The type of content matters, not only the quality and the kind of content for the targeted audience. If you provide content not considering the buyer’s stage in the sales funnel, they may not dwell on your site too long. 

• What a user searches online matters too – If the search intent does not match your content on site, the user will go away within a flick of a time because the information is not answering their specific query.

• Seasonal Trends – Time-based and event-based seasonal trends have a great impact on SEO. 

• Mobile Optimization – If your website is not mobile optimized, you need to incorporate dwell time optimization. 

What is a good dwell time?

What is a good dwell time? It depends on many factors but when you search online you will get a benchmark and it is 2 minutes or more. Within this time frame, a searcher can explore your site in detail skimming all pages. On the other hand, less than 5 seconds on your site is considered a bad dwell time. You may wonder how to calculate dwell time. You can use many methods. All you need to find out what is dwell time on a website, is a tool like Google Analytics. When you know how you calculate dwell time it will leave a picture about the current state of the website. 

Dwell time impact on SEO 

If your website meets the demands of dwell time, the dwell time impact on SEO can be pointed out as follows:

• High-quality content 
• Content that meets search intent and sales funnel
• Increased organic traffic 
• Increased engagement

How to increase Dwell time optimization 

• Include great content on your webpage 

The first line of the web page matters most to hook the reader. You need to provide content that resonates with the actual needs of the searcher. Relevant content you include on the site also needs to be skimmable by people. Nobody is going to read your content by line but skim. So, ensure the content is scannable. Your dwell time formula must include content. 

• You can include key takeaways if it is an informative article or blog
• You can incorporate listicles or points continuously

• Prepare a well-defined sales funnel

If you have a well-defined sales funnel, you will have a greater idea about the target audience, the buyer persona and the five different stages in which these targets fit. Therefore, you can bespoke the apt strategy to meet the concerns of your target.

• A well-designed website 

A well-designed website appeals to your target. Easy navigation is the prime advantage of it. Besides, target will find your website is rich in media content and the content is incorporated in a way that elevates overall user experience. 

• Internal Linking

Having a great number of qualified internal links increases your dwell time impact on SEO. They are content on your website and you can link it whenever appropriate internally. The more you link, the more people explore your website and stick to it. It is also a key point when you employ on-page SEO. One way to include internal linking is by using powerful calls to action at apt places in your content. Many well-established businesses despite their domain benefit from this tactic.

Dwell time on site remains a great factor in ranking on SERP pages though Google has not declared it officially. You know how dwell time impact on SEO and what you do online. So, it is high time to check whether your business website has a good dwell time. If not, it is never too late to take necessary action. A professional SEO agency can help you abundant manner as they are veteran in search engine optimization.