This is another entry in our quest to test user experience metrics. In reviewing SEO opinion, most experts tend to think that time on site (also known as dwell time or average session duration) is probably a ranking factor.
Intuitively, this metric makes sense as being a ranking factor...sites that keep their visitors longer are better sites, right? So let’s test it.
Test Downloads
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This is a follow up on the bounce rate test that we did in the previous month. The idea here is that we are looking at user metrics. The assumption is that these things are part of the algorithm. It is a broad assumption across the board, that there are things that Google clearly see in Google Analytics and the idea is that if Google can see that in GA, they can then use it and extrapolate that data to qualify how good your content is.
If people are engaging with it, if they are spending time on your site, if they are clicking through and seeing things, those would indicate that you might have better content than somebody else and that would be a ranking factor. The purpose of these user metrics are very obvious.
Are these things actually a ranking factor? We found that bounce rate clearly is. So in this next two, we were looking at time on site – the dwell time or the time that somebody sites in page. Then the other one is conversions and how that is done is you can set conversions in Google Analytics and it is something that we have recorded.
This is a great theory and I liked it a lot because the concept is that you told Google what is most important to your site and this is what I am trying to track. The idea then would be if you succeed in that, you have proven that your data is appropriate for that search – would Google reward that and can you move up in rank?
With the time on site, we can’t say that it is a ranking factor at this time. There were a lot of problems controlling people that were doing the actual tests. We did get positive movement with the time on site which we were happy about but we cannot conclusively say that time on site is a ranking factor in the same way that we can with bounce rate.
What I am telling clients right now is that it is probably part of the algorithm and we work on ways to make people stay longer. In terms of testing we could not say a 100% that it is a ranking factor.
The obvious thing is that different sites have different content so that they are going to have different bounce rates and time on sites. I would imagine there would be a kind of interplay and we see in the result that came up here. The page that moved up to number one and stayed there has a much better bounce rate than the experiment page and has the second most visits.
The experiment page had the most visits and the best time on site. There are some interplay with all those concepts – an equation where in bounce rate may be more important and maybe x your time on site x your visit.
I would encourage you to do something on your site to make people stay longer. Bounce rate may be more important.