Yes, Dwell time is a Google ranking factor in 2019. It can not only affect individual web pages for individual search engine queries, but the whole domain as well. Officially, Google has not announced anything related to Dwell Time but released a patent in which Google specify the measurement of the duration of a site visitor on the page. And, these measurements have been linked directly to higher Google rankings.
What is Dwell Time?
Dwell time concept is presented in 2011 first time by Duane Forrester in his blog post on the Bing Webmaster Blog that is focused on how to great quality content for websites.
Dwell time generally is the length of time a website visitor spends on a web page before returning to the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). Let’s, understand this by an example-
Suppose you are searching “21 SEO Trends in 2019” you will type it into the search engine like Google and click on the result that most interest you. Suppose reading that page took you 6 minutes and 20 seconds, and after you decide to return to the SERPs to collect more info from other sources, so you click back. So, the time between those two clicks that is 6 minutes and 20 seconds is your dwell time. Keep in mind that dwell Time Is not Bounce Rate. A bounce occurs when anyone views only one page and leaves the page of your website without interruption/click.
Is Dwell Time A Google Ranking Factor In 2019?
There is no official statement from Google on dwell time is a ranking factor or not. But, Nick Frost, the head of Google Brain said at a conference in late‐2017:
“Google is now integrating machine learning into [the process of figuring out what the relationship between a search and the best page for that search is]. So then training models on when someone clicks on a page and stays on that page, when they go back or when they and trying to figure out exactly on that relationship”. And this seems to confirm the notion that dwell time is a Google ranking factor in 2019.
How To Increase Your Site’s Dwell Time?
To increase your website’s dwell time, post good quality content and ensure it is easy-to-read and short and sweet. Also, reduce the size of the images and improve your site speed because users will leave your site if it takes even longer than 5 seconds to load. Apart from this, remove any pop-ups or auto play features from your homepage. It is recommended hire a professional SEO company and/or experienced content writer to make these things better and effective.
Keep in mind that most of the online users never go beyond the first page of search results. Thus, if you rank on page two, three or beyond, almost then no one will be “dwelling” on your page. That proves that dwell time is a Google Ranking Factor only for results in the top 10.
