This blog will tell you what is dwell time and why it is important for SEO.
Doing business in the UK has become very technical in recent years. From complicated tax regulations to website management, you must ensure everything works properly.
When it comes to website management, most business owners do not have the appropriate skills. Therefore, they decide that they will skip the website. This is one of the biggest mistakes that any business can make today.
Your online presence is more important than having an office or an outlet. A business that does not have an outlet may still be able to make sales if it has a website. However, you are not likely to get noticed if things are the other way around.
So, let’s help you out. In this blog, we will tell you what is dwell time. In addition, you will be briefed on why it matters for your website.
In the end, our readers will be provided with a small guide they can follow to enhance their dwell time. Let’s begin!
What is Dwell Time?
So, what is dwell time?
Dwell time, if explained simply, is the amount of time a person spends on a website after clicking on its link.
Suppose you do an online search on Google and you end up with a list of results. Once you click on a website link on the result page, your dwell time starts until you close that website.
If you find the website engaging and think that it has the information that you require, you will have a higher dwell time. However, if the website is hard to use and does not carry the information that you require, you will end up closing it quickly.
Now apply this to your website. You will have a high dwell time if people spend more time on your website after clicking on the link. However, if your website is not user-friendly or has pop-ups, people will close it instantly.
Now you understand what is dwell time, but is it really that important?
Why is Dwell Time Important for SEO?
In this section, we will tell you why dwell time is important for SEO.
If you previously didn’t know what is dwell time was, by now, you should have a basic idea. Let’s build on that idea by discussing its importance. Below are some reasons why this term is highly important for business websites:
1. Measure User Experience
The first advantage of dwell time is that it can help you measure user dwell time.
Think about it, how exactly can one measure dwell time? You start investing in your website and spend thousands of pounds but you are still not sure whether you have done enough.
In addition, you are just shooting in the dark. You don’t know whether people find your website informational or not. So, how do you track your progress?
Well, there are many metrics that can be used for measuring overall progress. However, if you want to see whether your website is user-friendly or not, dwell time is the best indicator.
This is how it works. If your website is user-friendly, you will find that people spend more time on it. This means that it will have a higher dwell time. However, if your website is not easy to use, people will quickly close it, meaning a lower dwell time.
You can use this information to evaluate and improve your website.
2. Shows Conversion Potential
Ask yourself what is a business website and what is its goal.
The answer is pretty simple, a website is a tool that you use to make sales. In the end, your goal is to drive your visitors to make a purchase from your website. That is the goal and you should never get carried away with all other intricacies.
A metric that is used to measure the conversion potential is the conversion rate. It basically shows how many people decide to make a purchase after visiting your website. However, it is not really useful when it comes to measuring the conversion potential.
Are people who visit your website more likely to make a purchase or not? How do you find that out? Well, the answer again is dwell time.
Dwell time shows you whether people find your website information or not. If they happen to find your website and stay on it for a longer period of time, that is generally a good sign.
This means that they will remember you for a longer time period. They may even navigate to your landing pages to learn about the services you provide. Hence, you can use dwell time to measure your conversion potential.
3. Reduces Bounce Rate
Telling you what is dwell time and not talking about bounce rate is futile.
For your understanding, you can see the bounce rate is almost the opposite of the dwell time. Bounce rate measures how quickly a person closes your website after clicking on the link from a SERP.
Unlike dwell time, a higher bounce rate means that it is bad for your website, and a low bounce rate is better. If your website bounce rate is high, it means people do not like whatever you are publishing.
Bounce rate is also used to rank websites on search engines. A website with a low bounce rate and a high dwell time will get ranked higher.
That is why it is important to ensure that your traffic is engaged with the website.
How to Improve Your Dwell Time? 5 Tips
By now, our readers should know what is dwell time and why it is important. Let’s move on.
In this section, you will be given five exclusive tips on how to enhance your dwell time. These tips have been recommended by our SEO experts, who understand the industry and its complexities. However, you can follow them even if you have no technical skills.
1. Improve Your Content
What is your website without the content, right?
A website is seen as highly qualitative and authoritative, depending on the content it publishes. If you are publishing high-quality and exclusive content, your audience will engage with it.
Therefore, to enhance dwell time, you need to improve your content. Your content should be original and easy to read. In addition, it should be appealing so that people are willing to read it because not everyone is a reader.
2. Make Navigation Simple
Have you ever been on a website that is hard to navigate? You are looking for a page that gives you the information, but you just cannot find it.
You are most likely to close the website and move on to the next page. This is exactly what your audience does. Therefore, you need to ensure that your website design is facilitated.
To do so, make sure that all of the links have been integrated properly and that there are no orphan pages. However, designing a website is not easy, and you may require professionals.
3. Use CTAs Strategically
What is dwell time enhancement without CTAs?
CTAs, or call-to-actions, are small sentences that are very important to add to your content. Websites use them to guide visitors through traffic.
Let’s consider that a person has found a blog of yours that provides them with the correct information. They read it completely and are ready to close your website. But then they see a sentence.
This sentence tells them to read more on another topic and provides them with the link. If they are interested in the topic, they will most likely click on it. This will lead to an improved dwell time as they have decided to stay.
4. Enhance Website Speed
No one likes a website that is slow.
A website that takes a minute to load up properly will experience a high bounce rate and a low dwell time. The reality is that there are too many options to choose from. Why should a person waste time waiting for your website to load up?
That is why you must ensure that your website loads quickly. You can do this by optimising your website and compressing all high-quality files, such as videos and graphics.
5. Optimise Your Website for Mobile Phones
Lastly, most internet queries are made from mobile devices.
That means that people are more likely to come across your website on a mobile device. So, you need to make sure that your website is working properly on a mobile phone as well.
The users should be able to easily access pages and navigate across the website on their phones.
Let’s Wrap It Up!
Now, let’s quickly summarise what is dwell time.
Dwell time is the total time spent on your website by a user after they click on its link. A high dwell time is good, while a low dwell time is bad.
Business websites find this indicator important as it helps them measure user experience and conversion potential. In addition, a website with a high dwell time will experience a lower bounce rate, leading to a higher SEO ranking.
To enhance your dwell time, improve your content, and make your website easy to use,. In addition, use CTAs to guide users through the website.
Lastly, optimising your website for mobile phones and lowering the loading time also enhance dwell time.
We at SEO Syrup understand that managing a website is hard for a business owner. Therefore, we provide you with the best SEO consultants in London. Click here for an instant quote!
