What Is Dwell Time & Why Does It Matter for SEO
What Is Dwell Time in SEO?
Dwell time is the amount of time users spend on a page from the search results before returning to the search engine results page (SERP).
It’s a measurement of a user’s dwelling time—how long they linger on a page starting from the time they click on a search result and ending when they navigate away from the page.
Let’s say you search for a “homemade pesto recipe.”
You click on the first organic result you see. It’s an unstructured article with a lengthy personal backstory before the recipe. And it’s full of ads.Â
You return to the SERP after only 10 seconds. The dwell time is 10 seconds in this case.
Then, you visit another recipe article. It’s easy to follow and helpful. You use that recipe and spend more than five minutes on that page. The dwell time is much higher here.