Google’s main goal is to provide high relevant search results to its users. This means, that if users spend less than five seconds on that webpage this is considered as a significant negative signal.
However, for specific keywords of topics, users want to receive instant answers to a problem which does not have straight to the point answers. This is where creativity appears.
You can rely on all types of visual or interactive elements to keep your visitors entertained and longer on your website.
What is dwell time?
Is there any point in increasing your dwelltime? In a lot of cases dwell time does not really matter. When exactly do you need to pay attention to it? Does it influence your ranking and how? And what is dwell time? It’s not the time spent on your page nor is it bounce rate.
Being informed of these things tells you the types of visuals you need to use on your page and when is the exact moment you need to use them. This way you will know whether you need to pay any attention to dwell time at all.
dwell time is the amount of time which passes between a visitor goes to your webpage and returns to the search engine results. According to Google if that time is less than five minutes, then your content is irrelevant to users.
Ideally, it will be great if visitors stay on your page for a minute or two. If they stay longer, even better. When it comes to keeping visitors on your page, a lot of Webmasters use bounce rate, time on page, and dwell time interchangeably. But they are not the same thing.
Time on page
This is the amount of time user spent on your webpage before clicking anywhere else. They could visit another page on your website or return to the search engines – anywhere which is away from that page.
If you want to get a better understanding of how users spend their time on your webpage, then you need to track:
• Link clicks
• Page scores
• Shares
• Interactions with video, audio, or graphics
• Exit to other pages
By tracking this data, you have a better understanding of how users engage with your page. This will help you in making better decisions regarding how to boost your dwell time and lower the bounce rate.
Dwell time
This is the amount of time after visitors click to your website from the search engines before returning to it.
Note, that site users can be very impatient.
If the page loads too slowly, too many distracting pop-ups appear, or your intro reads poorly, visitors will leave your page. This in turn signals to Google that your content isn’t good enough.
Bounce rate
This applies to the percentage of visitors who leave after visiting just one page on your website. No matter where they go after that or how many minutes they have stayed on your website. If they have visited just one page, it’s considered as a bounce.
This is not always a bad thing. Visitors may have gathered all of the needed information from just one page. Or they may have shared your content on social media.
Is dwell time important?
Dwell time is important if you are already on the first page of search results. Why is this?
The dwell time on your page starts counting after a user clicks to your page from the search results. If your content is not ranking, then the dwell time it’s not really important
If your content is listed on the second page of search engines, it’s highly likely that you will not get any traffic from such changes. However, if you receive any traffic and visitors actually engage with your content, this should lift your rankings. The conclusion is, that search engines use the time in order to measure content relevance. And this is why search engines were created in the first place – serving a relevant content.
Boost your dwell time with visuals
Once your content starts to rank high on search engines, Google needs to ensure that your page is relevant to users. If more people click through your website then you’ll start to rank high on search engines, Google needs to ensure that your page is relevant to users. If more people click through your website then you’ll see a better ranking.
Video
A lot of marketers saw a boost in their dwell time when using videos on their page.
If the topic you have covered was done extensively in the videos which were posted on YouTube, you can use a video gallery plugin which can display all of them on your page.
You can also use plugins such as FV player which can help you embed WordPress native videos which do not rely on other platforms. You need to capture the visitor’s attention as soon as they land on your page. This is why you can use a magnetic thumbnail which can make the video visible instantly on your page.
Make sure to include videos on your posts and make them visible to users which land on your page from the search results. Try to use short, 1–2 minute videos.
If you aim to hold user’s attention on your page, interactive content is the way to go.
How do you achieve that? With the help of the plugins. A popular option is Quiz & Survey master.
You can also create responsive charts, tables, and interactive elements into your WordPress site with the help of other plugins such as Visualizer.
By using interactive content, you bring boring topics to life. The faster your site is, the longer visitors will stick around.
There are a number of ways which you can use to improve your site speed. From using a CDN, good hosting, and choosing a good quality WordPress theme, you have plenty of options to choose from.
When using visual elements, always try to use lightweight. Optimise your images, videos, themes, graphics, and all type of visuals which need to load fast.
Table of contents and uncluttered navigation
A table of contents can help you present your key points to users quickly and efficiently, as well as navigate them to go straight to the part they are interested in.
Navigation on the other hand, can help visitors stay longer on your website. Even if they have already located what they were looking for, they can still check out your other pages. When they stay longer on your website, this is always a good thing.
Lazy load your comments
Creating community on your website is always helpful for both human visitors and search engines. They significantly improve user engagement and add semantic keywords to your website.
Comments can help your website engage better with your content. Visitors find it helpful to see what others think of your content. It encourages them to engage in the discussion as well. As people engage longer with your site comments, your dwell time will increase.
Conclusion
The idea way of proving to Google your content matters is by engaging visitors with it. Explore all of the visual tactics we have shared with you today. You can start with one, and slowly apply the others as well.
Getting your traffic to stay longer is always the smart thing to do when your page begins to rank for various keywords, visitors will start to stick around for longer, this way boosting your websites rankings.
