All digital marketing enthusiasts and professionals are always looking to improve their results, with SEO positioning being a key aspect. It is very interesting to understand the impact of dwell time.
What is dwell time?
Dwell time is the time between clicking on a search result and subsequently returning to the SERPs.
That is, I enter a result I found on Google, I can quickly look at it and see that I made a mistake or I can spend several minutes looking at it.
A synonymous term is pogo-stiking .
It’s easy to guess that if I spend a minute or two looking at it, I’m consuming the content because it seems relevant to me . On the other hand, if I spend just a few seconds, the search engine may flag it as irrelevant. It’s just common sense.
Is dwell time an SEO factor?
As with many other aspects related to search engine positioning , there is no confirmation of this possibility, although it is likely that within its machine learning technology , called Google Brain , they take it into account because it is a factor that is easily parameterized statistically.
On the other hand, we also have to keep in mind that, often, the searches we do are to find very quick solutions , for example, what time is it in Miami or what Liverpool’s next match is.
On the other hand, it may be that the result I end up receiving after searching the website for a long time isn’t satisfactory, resulting in a negative user experience. However, I spent time on the page, so in terms of dwell time, it was positive. As we can see, it’s not always easy to attribute a positive effect to spending more time without returning to the search and results page .
What relevant information can you provide?
It can help search engines understand when content adds value and is capable of answering all the questions they may have about the concept.
What matters in all cases to improve our rankings
Although we don’t know if this is a relevant aspect, we do know that Google values user experience, so we shouldn’t forget:
- Create quality content and use the right keywords that are part of the concept, and work on your on-page SEO accordingly . If we create an in-depth article, we should try to answer all the questions related to a particular topic, such as what, why, how, when, and where. By answering these questions, the article offers more value and, consequently, more time spent on the page.
- I work on user experience , focusing on making reading easier for them, and thinking a lot about mobile and the loading speed of your pages so you don’t keep your visitors waiting too long.
- Work on internal links that provide value to the user so that you will extend their visit and lower the bounce rate .
- Don’t forget search intent . Before creating content, we must understand the search intent to determine the user’s intention behind the most common search terms used by our buyer personas and meet their needs.
- Work on the introduction so they’re curious about what we’re going to explain to them and whether they’ll solve the problem that prompted them to access the content.
