There are many factors that help you rank an article higher in Google search pages.
One such factor is Dwell Time.
To understand how dwell time helps us rank better in Google, we first need to completely understand what dwell time is.
So let’s get into the intricate details of the dwell time of a website.
Table of Contents
Understanding What Is Dwell Time
Suppose you search for a term on google and click on the first result (website A) that Google shows you.
However it doesn’t help you at all and within 3 – 4 secs you have hit the back button.
After hitting the back button you visit the second link (website B) and you find what you are looking for.
Not only that you find other articles that really got your interest going and you have spent over 4 minutes on website B.
So according to this,
Dwell time of website A: 3-4 secs
Dwell time of website B: 4 minutes
So to summarise this, we can conclude that dwell time is the average session a user spends on your blog.
If you have studied or SEO or learned a few things you might have heard the term Bounce Rate.
And it is easy to get confused that both the terms Dwell time and Bounce Rate are the same.
But it is not!
Yes, they are similar but not entirely the same.
Check out this differences image below,
Bounce Rate: When a user leaves without clicking even a single link, the session is termed as Bounce
Dwell Time: A user who spends time on your blog reading various articles is called Dwell Time.
I hope this clears the common misconception that Dwell Time and Bounce Rate are the same.
Now that we have fully understood what Dwell Time is let’s see where can we check our blogs Dwell Time.
How To Check Your Blog’s Dwell Time
The best tool to check your blogs Dwell Time is Google Analytics.
So head over to Google Analytics and navigate accordingly,
Google Analytics > Sidebar > Audience > Overview
There you will see a report similar to this.
Look for Avg. Session Duration
The figure given there is your Dwell Time.
For example, the blog in the screenshot has a dwell time of 02:10 and a 51% Bounce Rate.
Why Is Dwell Time Important
Google is getting smarter!
It analyzes all the events from the time a user clicks on a result and till the time he hits the back button.
From this Google concludes whether the web-page was helpful to the user or not.
One such factor which helps Google decide the quality of a web-page is the Dwell Time.
Higher the dwell time, higher the ranking boost your page gets*
Now, this statement will not be true for Q/A websites or shopping websites.
Because a higher Dwell time is actually bad for a Q/A website because the site wasn’t good enough to answer the reader’s query quickly.
Similarly, higher dwell time on a shopping website without a purchase even marks a negative point towards the ranking factor of that website.
To clear the confusion,
Since we are concentrating on dwell time for a blog, we can safely say a higher dwell time will definitely help us increase our ranking.
5 Factors To Help Improve Dwell Time
As we discussed earlier dwell time helps us improve our search rankings.
So it’s only logical to increase it by using various techniques.
These techniques will be discussed as 5 factors in this post.
#1 Increase You Content-Length
Its common sense, more the content you post about a topic, more will be the amount of time the user spends on your blog.
An adult reading casually reads about 300 words/minute.
So it means even an article of 1000 words takes about 5 minutes.
So it is recommended you write an article that is at least in the range of 1000-1500 words.
This also helps you rank better in SERP! Google loves complete content and it pushes it higher in the search results.
This also helps you in monetizing your blog and earning profits from it.
#2 Embed Videos In Your Blog Posts
Instead of linking to a youtube video you can embed a video in the post itself.
This increases the time a user will spend on your blog and increases the chances of the user clicking on your blog.
Statistically, embedding a youtube video in a blog post increases the dwell time by 260%!
#3 Inter Link Your Blog Posts
Interlinking and recommending related articles to the user ensure that the user stays on your blog for quite some time.
This tactic is also helpful in powering up your blog with backlink juice.
Plus you have the added benefit of increasing the page views of your blog.
So all in all its a win-win situation for you as a blogger.
#4 Place Appropriate Widgets In The Right Places
Showcasing your posts helps in increasing the curiosity of the readers.
Plus if you really write a powerful blog post title and you create interest the user will surely stay on your blog for a longer duration.
Widgets ideas you can use:
- Related posts below every post
- Popular Articles in the sidebar
- Recent posts in the footer
- Pillar article links in the header menu.
#5 Quality Content That Actually Educates
Don’t write articles just to increase your number of posts.
Take your time in writing your blog posts.
Make a detailed guide on that subject.
Do your research and post your findings. Tell the audience how this data can help them.
Write an article that people actually like reading.
This increases your blog’s trust factor with the audience and helps you create an audience that engages with your blog.
Conclusion
While many SEO experts might say Dwell Time is not an SEO factor, it is not true for bloggers.
We as bloggers are looking to up our Dwell time and reduce bounce rates.
So implement these 5 factors onto your blog and increase your Dwell Time which ultimately increases your SERP ranking.
Do post your views on Dwell Time and let’s engage in a meaningful discussion.
Happy Blogging!
Heads off my brother
Wow Nice Post