Time on site or session duration is a buzzword that is widely used in digital marketing. It’s frequently discussed along with bounce rate, time on page, and related metrics, so gathering this information is smart. The better strategy is to figure out how to use it to move the metrics for your website in terms of SEO.
What is Time On Site, Time On Page and Bounce Rate?
“Time on site” refers to a user’s total time on your website, also called session duration. It is calculated by noting the timestamps of when a visitor accesses your landing page via a search engine or link and when they leave your website.
The term “time on page” refers to the amount of time a user spends on a single page. The percentage of visitors to your website that only view one page before leaving and visiting another website is known as the “bounce rate”.
Importance of Time on Site
Instead of only concentrating on one page, time spent on the site is the ideal indicator for assessing how beneficial visitors find your entire website. It answers queries like, “how long do they shop around before making a purchase?” or “are they reading these numerous blog entries?”
Is Time on Site Equal to Dwell Time?
The time users spend on a single page they access via a search engine is known as their “dwell time”. The dwell time can be calculated using timestamps to record when a person clicks a link from a search engine and when they return to their search results. On the other hand, time on site refers to all the time a visitor spends on your website.
Sessions do not include time spent on departure or bounce pages, so even if a visitor spends a few minutes reviewing your website before leaving, their visit won’t be counted as part of their total time spent there.
What is the Average Time on Site?
The average time spent on a website is calculated by dividing the hours spent within a certain period by the number of new sessions. Remember that visitors may have multiple sessions if they visit your website numerous times over several days or return to what they were doing later.
Analysing Your Time on Site Metrics
When reviewing your time on site stats, there are a few things to remember. First, your average time on your website might not fully address all your inquiries on user behaviour and how they interact with it. For instance, knowing that most visitors to your website stay for 30 minutes isn’t actionable knowledge.
The same may be stated about each user’s time spent on the website. They may have spent only a minute on your website because they didn’t like the content, the page took too long to load, they were annoyed by the adverts, or the next steps weren’t obvious. You simply couldn’t be aware of the specifics.
Reporting Time on Site Metrics
You may assess whether you are giving your website visitors adequate guidance on moving down the conversion funnel by grouping people into cohorts depending on how long they stay on your website.
Suppose you observe many users moving through the conversion funnel more quickly than you had anticipated. In that case, this can mean they are skipping some critical processes or have discovered a shortcut.
In contrast, if a significant portion of people spend more time on your website than you had planned, a perplexing element might delay their visit. This could be caused by a dearth of internal links, sluggish page loads, or other problems that are frustrating your users.
How to Improve Time on Site?
More often than not, you’ll want visitors to stay on your website longer. Visitors who don’t wish to make a purchase won’t have any motivation to stay on your website if it merely contains a home page and product pages. Even those who actually buy anything can do it rather quickly. Try some of the following strategies to improve your time on site:
1. Include High-quality Content
Most websites include additional pages with excellent information in addition to the goods or services they offer. These pages could include information on the company’s founders, their goals, the location of the items, how to use them, information on their features, and how to use them.
Make sure to capture and hold your readers’ attention no matter what you provide. Pick a voice that accurately represents your business and content that will interest your audience. Your users will be interested in reading more about your business and products.
2. Apply Relevant Keywords
Even if you have the best content, it won’t matter if the correct audience cannot access it. People looking for information on vehicle insurance won’t benefit from reading a comprehensive essay about hurricane insurance.
Likewise, your content can appear in a search for people who aren’t seeking housing insurance if you don’t utilise relevant keywords, or it might not appear when people search for variations on the phrases.
3. Optimise Your Page Load Time
A delayed load time is one of the leading causes of a high bounce rate and little time spent on the page. People expect pages to load quickly, and the longer they have to wait for your material to load, the more probable it is that they will leave your page without ever seeing it. You can’t rely on everyone having fast internet connections, so you’ll need to design your websites for the lowest common denominator, even though some people could try refreshing the page.
By using less complex graphics, typefaces, or formatting elements, you can reduce the time it takes for your page to load. Your site will load faster with fewer items like moving graphics, embedded movies, or music automatically playing.
4. Apply Internal Linking
Internal linking is another effective technique to let viewers know you have more good stuff to share. When writing an informative post, you must connect to your sources to demonstrate how thoroughly you did your research. Still, you can also use links to other pages on your website to keep readers interested for longer.
You should include a link to the product description page, for instance, if you write a blog post outlining the advantages of one of your products or how to use a major feature. By doing this, a visitor who sees the page using a search engine can locate the item you’re discussing.
Alternatively, you can link to further internal content exploring related subjects if the reader wants to learn more.
5. Limit Annoying Widgets, Pop-ups and Ads
Finally, you should minimise the number of pop-ups and outside advertisements that appear on each page of your website. Although including a few links to affiliates is not an issue, your visitors want to learn more about your business, not someone else’s. Numerous pop-ups that bombard the reader as they scroll down or on each page may cause them to lose patience and exit your site.
Conclusion
You can tell how deeply users engage with your content by tracking how long they spend on your website. Knowing how long it takes customers to go from visiting your website to purchasing as you build and improve your conversion funnel is helpful. You might also find out how long people spend reading the items you write. If you wish to learn more about Time on Site and how to improve it for SEO, please don’t hesitate to contact us!
