In case you haven’t yet heard, dwell time is becoming one of 2018’s most important ranking signals. It refers to how long a visitor spends on your site before returning back to the Google SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). This is an important ranking factor for Google as it is a solid indicator of how good your content is and how useful people find it. If you have a short dwell time compared to similar sites, then it indicates that your content isn’t as useful and does not fully answer the user’s question. In comparison, if your dwell time is long, it shows that your page offers good, solid answers to the user’s search query and Google can rank that page higher in the future. So, to help you boost it, we discuss the importance of dwell time and how to boost it on your site.
1. Actually answer the question
The biggest reason that people click back to the Google SERPs will be that your page doesn’t actually answer the user’s question. This point sounds simple, but far too many website owners publish content that beats around the bush and doesn’t provide actionable, clear advice to the targeted search query.
2. Write longer content
If you publish longer content that goes into deeper detail about a given topic, then it will naturally take longer for people to read or skim it. Of course, you should never waffle just for the sake of it. Instead, simply delve deeper into the topic and be sure to break up the content nicely into different sections.
3. Use a wider variety of multimedia
Using images and videos will quickly make your site’s content far more engaging. Especially if your competitors’ sites are failing to do the same. Be sure to use plenty of images all throughout the content at regular points. These can be relevant pictures or helpful screenshots.
4. Improve your website’s usability
Another crucial reason that people are quickly leaving your site is that it does not function well on their device. Did you know that more people now use Google from a mobile device than a desktop? Well, it’s true! So, you need to make sure your site is fully mobile responsive.
If you find that your SEO strategy is yet to start showing real results, then taking these steps to boost your dwell time should help. Also, check out our free SEO site-check tool. It will assess your site and offer up quick recommendations as to how you can improve certain parts of your page’s content and structure in order to boost your SEO efforts further.
The importance of dwell time – where to find out more
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