We may already understand the importance of optimizing your landing page views and attract new visitors to the site . But there's another website performance metric you should consider and think about: time on page.
Analyzing time on page can be of great help to understand if it is attracting potential customers or not being useful. It can also provide valuable insights into content performance.
In this post, we'll take a deeper look at the time on page metric to learn how it works. We'll also examine what information this measurement can reveal about your site's performance.
What is time on page?
Time on page is the “average amount of time users spend viewing a specific page or screen, or set of pages or screens.”
For most sites, this is the amount of time a user spends reading the content of a single page. This number is calculated from the moment they land on it until they click to go to the next one.
A flaw of this metric is that Google can only record the time between landing on one page and moving to another. So if someone lands on the site and then leaves without moving forward, Google won't measure the time. Likewise, if someone visits dozens of pages on your site, a time will not be recorded for the last page they visited.
How time on page can trump page views.
As websites become more and more interactive, time on page can continue to increase more and more. For example, a site user can open a lightbox with additional content on the same page, or click a button to view portfolio items or galleries without leaving.
Consequently, the time on page metric could become even more important than measuring the total number of page views. Things change over time.
Understand average time on page vs. session duration time.
Time on page It is the amount of time between a person landing on one web page and moving on to another. If the user does not move to a second page, it is not calculated or added to the average time on page. It is as if it had never been visited. But you should not confuse this metric with session duration time.
The duration of the session refers to the average amount of time people spend on your entire site including all visits. This also includes everyone who bounced without taking any action. But Google can't accurately measure the time a person spends if they don't interact with your site, so the duration is counted as zero seconds for this type of visitor.
Why average session duration is almost always less than time on page.
The average session duration includes all bounced traffic (usually around 50%) and enters each of these sessions as zero seconds. This significantly reduces the average.
However, time on page does not include bounced sessions. Therefore, the average calculated time is usually noticeably longer.
How to find key metrics in Google Analytics.
Now that we understand more about the difference between average session duration and time on the page itself, let's discuss where they can be found in Google Analytics. There are multiple reports that can be used.
For session duration, data can be located in reports that discuss how users view your pages, such as Page report destination or Channel report . For time on page, you can use the General behavior report or the Report of all pages. There are quite a few options.
How to find the average session duration in Google Analytics.
From the Google Analytics control panel, we go to Behavior → site content → landing pages .
Here you can find the average session duration for each of the pages.
We could also do it from Acquisition → All traffic → Channel report to see the average session duration for each channel.
How to Find Average Time on Page in Google Analytics
To find out the average time on page, from Behavior → overview report .
Also found in Behavior → site content → Report all pages.
How to evaluate time on page.
Once you know where and how to place time in the page metric, the next step is to evaluate the results and determine where you can improve. However, keep in mind that a “good time on page” varies depending on a multitude of factors.
A study shows that the average time a site visitor spends on a web page is almost 52 seconds most of the time. You can compare your metric to this standard to get a benchmark of your website's performance. But it's best to simply focus on continually improving your metrics compared to your site's past data.
To properly evaluate your time on page metric, it's best to set your expectations based on the type of content you have on each page. You should also consider where people go after leaving your pages.
What does it mean when time on page is too short?
This factor could indicate a problem with your site. For example, you may have content that is irrelevant to the search terms you rank for. Users are likely to get confused and leave quite quickly.
But a short time on page doesn't have to be a negative: a landing page that only features graphics and some copy could justify a shorter amount of time on a page. A good reference that this is the case is a high number of page views or conversions.
Let's imagine that you only intend the content on a page to spark interest. In this scenario, the time on page may be short, but if your bounce rate is low, this does not mean something is wrong. Everything is going perfectly.
But what if your content provides the information people are looking for, but their time on page is shorter than you want? In this case, it is time to analyze the user experience (UX).
Poor performance often leads users to leave the website; After all, who wants to sit and wait a long time for a site to load? Instead, users will simply go somewhere else.
What does it mean if the time on page is too long?
On the opposite extreme, spending more time consuming your pages is generally a good thing.
But you can run into problems if users spend a lot of time on a page and don't take the actions you'd like them to do: purchase a product, fill out a contact form, or subscribe to your newsletter.
Once again, it is important to understand the content of each of your pages. For example, if you have an eCommerce site, you're probably looking for sales. So spending a lot of time reading about a product without a conversion can indicate a few things:
If this is the case, you may want to make your product pages more user-friendly with a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section, additional images, size charts, reviews, or other useful data.
How to improve Google metrics.
Regardless of the content or purpose of your site, there are some basic principles that can help you improve your average time on page, along with other data.
1. Establish a strong internal linking strategy.
Internal links are links to other pages within your website. They can increase time spent on your site and improve search engine rankings at the same time. Ultimately, they can make it easier for users to find other posts that interest them without having to spend a lot of time searching the web.
Additionally, you don't have to buy any third-party plugins or tools to use this strategy. It is simply about adding links naturally phrases related to the publication or page you are linking to.
2. Add videos.
Adding videos to your site can keep users there longer because watching a clip is often easier and more enjoyable than reading copy.
Therefore, giving users both options will make them more likely to find an enjoyable way to interact and navigate the page.
These are just a few types of videos you could create:
The filming process doesn't have to be incredibly complicated either.
Once you've created videos, you can use Jetpack VideoPress to add them to your posts and pages. And unlike third-party tools like YouTube, you won't have to worry about users being distracted by ads or competing content.
3. Make sure the content is readable.
Another way to improve your site metrics is by improving readability. If pages are difficult to read, especially on mobile devices, the user will be less likely to stick around.
There are many ways to make content easier to consume. First, use font that is large enough for people to read, including those with vision problems. 16px is considered the minimum, but this may vary depending on the specific font you are using.
Additionally, you should try to avoid using complex fonts for text bodies.
Second, break up long blocks of text using subheadings. It's also helpful to incorporate bulleted lists, lots of white space, and short paragraphs.
This can make your page much easier to search for information.
4. Focus on optimizing site performance.
People tend to be impatient, especially when it comes to browsing the web. Three seconds is all it takes for up to 40% of your audience to give up and find what they're looking for somewhere else.
Therefore, if we want to improve metrics such as time on page and session duration, it is very important to optimize site speed.
Jetpack Boost provides a quick way to test your site's performance and offers improvement options that literally take just one click. You can implement a WordPress CDN, work on lazy loading images, optimize your site's CSS, and simplify non-essential javascript.
Even a small improvement in loading times can improve the user experience and keep people on the page longer.
5. Publish the right content.
If the content you post isn't interesting or useful to your site visitors, chances are they won't stick around to read it. This is when it pays to know your target audience well. How can you answer questions they have about products, services or topics?
And, especially when it comes to blog content, you should focus on helping rather than selling. People don't want to read sales pitch after sales pitch. Instead, they want to know how to solve whatever problem they have, whether it's designing a product, getting their finances in order, or helping their child learn to read.
6. Simplify site processes and interactions.
If the site is difficult to use, most people will get frustrated and leave. While this may vary depending on your site and industry, here are some ways processes can be optimized:
Ideally, ask audience members, or even friends and family, to use our site and report any issues they may encounter to help us improve.
7. Optimize for mobile devices
Make sure the site is easy to use and looks good on devices of all types: desktops, tablets and mobile phones. Of course, it would be virtually impossible to perform a physical test on all existing devices, so we tried using tools like Responsinator to get a quick overview. Noa we ensure that the fonts are large enough to read, that the content is easy to consume and that the images are not cropped.
Time on page is just the tip of the iceberg
Paying attention to key metrics is crucial to getting the most out of the site. Connect your WordPress site to Google Analytics to unlock a wide range of metrics that can guide you in determining where to focus efforts. There is no such thing as perfection - continuous improvement is the key to success!
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