Dwell Time Means.....?

[johnbritto]

Hi All,

Anyone share the details about dwell time? I found some definition from Google. It is the interval time from the time of clicking the SERP results to the time reaching the particular website.

Is it right? It is one of the ranking factor considered by Google?

 

[fisicx]

It means the length of time a person dwells on a page. It’s only every going to be a minor ranking signal as there are too many variables as to why someone clicks or doesn’t click on a link.

 

[The Ecom Guy]

Dwell time is indeed a ranking metric - how much is open to discussion.

Dwell time is the length of time a person spends looking at a webpage after they’ve clicked a link on a SERP page, but before clicking back to the SERP results.

Taken from a leading SEO forum:

Dwell Time Is NOT Bounce Rate
A bounce happens when someone views only one page and leaves your site.

So your bounce rate is the percentage of single-page sessions divided by all the sessions for your website (or an individual page).

Those people who bounce? They don’t all come from a SERP.

And even if some of the bouncers entered your site via a SERP, that doesn’t mean they clicked back to that SERP. They could have closed the page or navigated directly to another site.

Dwell Time Is NOT Average Time on Page
Dwell time also has been used somewhat interchangeably with average time on page.

But average time on page is simply that – the amount of time someone spends on one of your pages, on average.

That user may have gotten to that page from social media, a link on another webpage, an email, or some other source.

 

[dittouk]

All of these metrics: Bounce Rate, Dwell Time, Avg. Time on site/Page, Avg # pages visited etc. are important - they may be one among many ranking factors but they directly impact a business.

Consider this - your site has decent rankings and decent traffic but high Bounce Rate, low dwell time, avg time on site and # pages visited. That won't be good for your business as you won't be converting visitors to customers.

Even if these metrics didn't affect ranking positions they will affect your ROI and bottom line because they are an indication of whether you site is actually working for your business.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Is it right? It is one of the ranking factor considered by Google?

Gary Illyes, a senior google engineer said recently:
'Dwell time, CTR, whatever Fishkin’s new theory is, those are generally made up crap. Search is much more simple than people think.'

Then you'll have people say 'he would say that'

 

[HomeWrking]

Interesting - thanks for sharing - but what will help a site rank - relevant backlinks? social signals I think many wonder why it is all so mysterious...

 

[DRDR]

They won't say what the exact algorithm is but those things you said are part of the formula to help increase ranking.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

Interesting - thanks for sharing - but what will help a site rank - relevant backlinks? social signals I think many wonder why it is all so mysterious...

Links and content. You can rank well on content alone for low competition search terms but for anything else it's the links that matter.

 

[WhizzPeople]

Dwell time is direct (or indirectly) related to the content and its quality. Unless you have good quality content, visitors won't stay long on the website. I guess everyone will agree with that.

Google would like to provide useful content to the visitors which makes it a ranking factor (a weak one, though).

 

[fisicx]

Links and content. You can rank well on content alone for low competition search terms but for anything else it's the links that matter.

I disagree. It's possible to rank well for just about anything without link building. @Tin sells a course that shows you how.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

I disagree. It's possible to rank well for just about anything without link building. @Tin sells a course that shows you how.

You can give me an example then?

 

[fisicx]

You can give me an example then?

Talk to @Tin.

 

[Inva]

If all the time spent on asking about obscure SEO topics (is this even SEO?) was spent on actually improving the product, everyone would rank higher.

 

[dittouk]

Of course it's possible to rank without link-building but not for commercial terms with high search volumes. Depends what you want - people reading your interesting page about a slightly obscure topic or real sales.

 

[fisicx]

Of course it's possible to rank without link-building but not for commercial terms with high search volumes.

Yes it is. Talk to @Tin

Depends what you want - people reading your interesting page about a slightly obscure topic or real sales.

I get real sales without link building. Nothing obscure about my keywords.