How to increase time spent and how to increase visit time are often overlooked elements of SEO. You, too, are probably focused on getting visitors to your website and rarely wondering how to keep them.
However, the amount of time visitors spend on your website is an important indicator. A longer waiting time usually indicates a user experience positive. This is also something that search engines take into account.
For this reason, in this tutorial, we are going to dive into how to increase visit time to your WordPress website. For that, we'll first look at what visiting time is and why it's important.
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After that we will discuss on how to measure it and end this tutorial with some practical tips on how to increase visit time to your website or blog.
What is the visit time
The term "visit time" was coined by Duane Forrester, then Senior Project Manager at Bing, who mentioned it in a blog post on Bing Webmaster's blog. Here's how he defined it:
The delay between when a user clicks on our search result and when they return from your website […].
In short, it's the time people consume your content before looking any further. So far, so good. Why is this important for search engines? Here's the take from Forrester:
Your goal should be that when a visitor arrives on your page, the content should meet all of their needs, encouraging them to stay there. If your content doesn't encourage them to stay, they'll leave. Search engines can get a feel for this by looking at downtime.
So basically visit time is a metric that tells search engines how well you are meeting the needs of your visitors. If they spend a lot of time on your page, it means they like what they found and your content fulfills what they came to your website for.
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Since it's the job of search engines to provide users with the best possible results, seeing happy visitors to your page is a good thing. Therefore, this would be a reason to promote your page in similar search results. Conversely, a short duration could be a reason to downgrade it.
While attendance time isn't an official ranking factor, you would still do well to increase it as much as you can. Why is that ? Because :
- there are indicators that visit time influence
- taking steps to increase this visitation time will improve your SEO and the quality of your website. Which couldn't be a bad thing.
How to calculate the visit time
Before trying to improve it, you must first have an idea of how your website is currently behaving in terms of visit time. After all, you can only measure improvements if you have a clear picture. before.
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However, when you consult Google Analytics or the analysis tool of your choice, it will be difficult for you to find the displayed visit time. The only thing Google offers is the average time spent on the page and the bounce rate.
While these are useful metrics for estimating downtime, they aren't quite the same:
- Visit time - As mentioned, this means the time interval when someone clicks on a search engine result and comes back to the search page (and only the search page).
- Rebound rate - The percentage of people who leave your website after visiting a single page. It doesn't matter if they spent two seconds or an hour there, without a second click, both count as a bounce.
- Time on the page - Means the amount of time people spend on your page before moving on. Their next destination might be the search page, another page on your website, or a completely different website.
In short, while visit time is related to bounce rate and time spent on the page, it's not quite one or the other. At the same time, there is no official way to measure visit time. It's more of a concept than a metric.
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As a result, these two measures are a good way to give you an indication of how the visiting time on your pages is doing. For this reason, before taking any corrective action, you'd better rate it for the pages you want to improve.
Effective ways to increase visit time on WordPress
Alright, now that you know why visitation time is important and the state of affairs on your website, it's time to take action. Try to increase the visit time in a nutshell, comes down to two factors:
- Provide excellent User experience
- Create relevant, unique, valuable and attractive content
However, the devil is in the details. For this reason, here are some practical tips on how to do this.
Optimize the first impression
The first thing people see on your website has a big influence on their retention. If their infatuations are extinguished immediately, there is no reason for them to move on to the rest of the page. This decision is made in milliseconds. Since you rarely get a second chance to make a first impression, it's best to count:
- Page loading speed : 40% of users close a website that takes more than three seconds to load. Three seconds? It's shorter than it takes to spell the word rebound rate.
Therefore, the first step in increasing the downtime on your website is to learn how to increase the speed of your website.
- Design - Web design carries a lot of weight in whether visitors trust your website. That is why you need to make sure that it is clear and resonates with your target audience.
Simple backgrounds, lots of white space, and clear, easy-to-read fonts will be your best allies.
- Layout - Design and layout go hand in hand. Make sure your content takes center stage and is easy to consume.
You can write the best content in the world, if it makes people dizzy trying to read it, they won't.
- Mobile optimization - A surefire way to have zero visit time on mobile devices is to have a website that does not -responsive- adapt. It is simply not acceptable on the internet these days.
So, learn what makes a mobile website friendly today and put it into practice.
- Ads and popups – Although popups can be absolutely essential in building an email list, they can also get annoying. Same for ads. When using either, make sure they don't interfere with the user experience. Use exit intent technology and other means for more subtlety.
Focus on user needs
As explained earlier, the long wait time usually means that your page is meeting user needs. That is why it takes them a long time before they decide to look for additional information. Conversely, to increase visitation time, try not to give them a reason to leave.
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Here's how to do it:
- Understand your users - The first way to satisfy the user's intention is to understand what it is. If you can get into your audience's heads and understand what they're looking for, you're much better equipped to give it to them.
Doing market research for your website will help you get there.
- Write more content long - Well-rounded content far surpasses shorter content. This makes sense in that longer posts allow you to dive deeper into a topic and answer other questions from your readers.
Although it is more work, but the results that follow are generally excellent.
- Target the right words - Keywords - Keywords in your title and description make a promise about what your article will talk about. If in the end you don't keep that promise (eg, an “ultimate guide” of only 300 words), visitors will leave en masse.
As a result, your visiting time will suffer. Learn more details on keywords by reading this article.
- Keep your content up-to-date - The contents obsolete is one of the best ways to direct visitors to the button of return. There is nothing more disappointing than clicking on an article and realizing that it is woefully outdated.
Personally, I rarely click even on search results that are more than two years old. Others will feel the same.
- Answer questions and comments - the most important conversation is in the comments section. If people are engaging with your articles, the worst thing you can do is ignore them.
Not only do other people read the comments (thus staying on your website longer), but when you interact with them, it is also a reason to come back to your website.
Make your content very readable
Readability has gained in importance in recent years. The Yoast team also gave a talk on the topic at WordCamp Europe 2016 on why they added a readability tool to their SEO plugin.
Here are their recommendations (in English) to make the content readable:
To this I would add:
- To be human - People want to connect with other people. Therefore, don't be afraid to let your personality shine through in your writing.
Ask questions, make jokes, be a little silly. This will help others connect with your content on a more personal level and make it more entertaining.
- Use the media - Images, infographics, videos, and other media are great tools for emphasizing what you're talking about and dividing your content.
Plus, with tons of free photos and plenty of services that WordPress natively supports, there's really no excuse not to use them.
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Include internal links
Waiting time isn't just about the page people land on. This also relates to the total time spent on your website. For this reason, in order to keep them longer, give them a place to go next.
Linking your content to related articles on your website (like I do in this tutorial) is one way to accomplish this. Another is to insert a widget in your sidebar or at the end of your post that lists your recent, popular, or similar posts.
Learn how to post similar content on your blog by clicking on this link.
Recommended Resources
We also invite you to consult the resources below to go further in the grip and control of your website and blog.
- How to build your success in the world of blogging?
- Bloggers: How to use Guest blogging to your advantage?
- The 35 tools indispensable for success in blogging
- How to create an affiliate marketing content that converts
Conclusion
So ! That's all for this tutorial, I hope it will allow you to increase the visit time on your website or WordPress blog. If you liked this article, ndo not hesitate to share on your social networks preferred.
However, do not hesitate to consult our resources, if you need more elements to carry out your projects of creation of Internet sites, by consulting our guide on the WordPress blog creation or the one on Divi: the best WordPress theme of all time.
If you have some Comments or any suggestions on how to monetize your blog through affiliate marketing? Let us know in the section below.
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