Dwell Time- What it Is and How it Impacts Your Internet Marketing Efforts

Everyone wants their website to rank well organically—and that achievement is the crème de la crème of Internet marketing.  Paying to have your business show up on the first page of a Google search is one thing—but having it show up there on its own is another. Not only do online shoppers see (non-paid) first-page website results as being trustworthy, companies whose websites rank well also enjoy higher website traffic, conversion rates, and in many cases- added revenue.

Remember-  search engine optimization isn’t a one-shot process. Not only is it something you need to stay on top of,  you also need to realize that SEO is a multi-pronged effort.  From adding fresh content to ensuring your website is optimized for mobile and voice search, there are lots of things you’ll need to stay on top of.

Your website’s dwell time is among them.

Dwell time defined

Google’s algorithm considers more than 200 ranking factors when determining which websites should appear on page 1, and your dwell time is among the most important.  Let us explain.

Imagine you own an Italian restaurant and an out-of-town visitor is searching for a lunch spot that serves chicken parmesan.  The type in a search query, your restaurant’s website is populated among the results, and they decide to click through.  Let’s also imagine that this person spends 4 minutes browsing various pages on your website before they click back to Google’s search results list. This would equate to 4-minutes of dwell time.

Dwell time begins and ends with the search engine results page (SERP). The amount of time a user spends on a website after clicking on a SERP is important for several reasons. First, Google’s algorithm wants to ensure it’s maximizing users’ experience by providing the best and most relevant search results.

Second, if a website’s dwell time is abysmal, it’s often because that search result isn’t what the user was looking for. Using this same example, let’s pretend the Chamber of Commerce held a chicken parmesan cooking contest for its members. Let’s also pretend that the link to that contest appeared on the first page of Google’s search results.  If the user clicked through to this website they’d likely click back right away. Why? Because while the website was optimized for the search term “chicken parmesan,” this isn’t what the user was looking for.

For more information about dwell rate, how it impacts SEO, and how taking steps to improve yours can improve your website’s ranking, we can help. Call WBN Marketing today to speak with an expert