How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?
For a moment, assume that you are driving past a billboard, and your speed influences what you see, read, and remember. Keeping visitors on your page and website is the same. The visitors are speed readers who want quick responses. So, how long do you think a visitor will stay? The answer will always remain intact: Not for very long. Much will depend on your efforts and several important factors.
Factors that could affect your visitors’ stay on your web pages
Have you ever tried to analyze the factors that contribute to the response of your visitors with respect to your website? Here is a quick look.
1. Website optimization
With people, spending more hours online now than ever, optimizing your website for visitors is imperative. It can go a long way in tempting them to browse through the website and stick around. Longer is not always better, though. Visitors should stay on your website because they appreciate the content and experience, not because they cannot find what they are searching for.
2. Brevity
With the visitors, glancing through web pages can retain approximately 25% of what you offer. The need is however to keep your content brief, succinct, and striking. In short, you should focus on the brevity of your website.
3. Image optimization
A picture is worth a thousand words and it can be a key component in attracting your visitor to spend more time with you. Possibly, a duly optimized image may be the sole reason they do not bounce off right away.
4. Landing page
When looking at your website analytics, you will notice that different visitors spend different times on different pages. You could discover that a landing page serves as a portal to the sites where your visitors spend the most time. But, if the page has a high bounce rate, you must have information that your target audience is seeking. Else, they will look for it elsewhere, including the rival website.
5. Bounce rate
Consider your website and individual web pages from the standpoint of your visitors. What difficulties do they have that you can rectify? What are they seeking? Consider that they may not use the terminology that your industry uses. You will figure out why sites have a high bounce rate.
6. Content
When you create a gripping content or improve the existing content, your ultimate goal should be to retain visitors on your site and encourage them to move to the next level. All your website pages should captivate your visitors. In addition, you should also make sure to guide your visitors through the buying cycle and closing a sale.
Average Time on Page Google Analytics
As evident, Google Analytics is one of the most widely used tools to assess average time on a page, among several other performance metrics. It is therefore critical to understand how Google Analytics generates this measure.
Average time calculation
Notably, Google Analytics calculates the average time spent on a page by comparing the timestamps of hits. It does not count a particular session, where a user arrives at a web page, dismisses the browser window, or tab, or puts another URL into the address bar.
So, you can determine the average duration on a page only from non-exits and non-bounces. It accounts for a lesser fraction of total page accesses. As a result, this average is generally higher than the average session timespan.
Google analytics can track the hidden browsers
Do you know that Google Analytics also keeps monitoring the page time even in case of a hidden user browser window or tab? Yes. It is hence a useful indicator to find out the extent to which your content appears interesting and successful.
Average Time Spent on a Website
Just like the average amount of time spent on a page, determining the average amount of time spent on a website also needs considering various factors. The industry, the nature of the website, and the device that visitors are using are some of them.
Average session duration
Look at the average session time to find out how long the visitors spend on an average on your website rather than separate web pages. This average session duration also measures the average length of a website’s sessions. Google Analytics begins calculating the length of a session when a user first visits a website and continues until the user leaves or is inactive for a defined period. (A session can last up to 30 minutes in Google Analytics without a user engaging with your sites.)
A session can last anything from a few seconds to many hours, and it might consist of a user visiting a single page or several pages. The average session time is the sum of all session durations (in seconds) divided by the number of sessions.
Average session vs average time spent on the web page
The average time on the page eliminates visits that terminate in exits or bounces, but average session length includes all bounces; hence, both are different. If your website has a high bounce rate, this might dramatically reduce the average session duration.
Improving the Average time spent on a website
So, how can you improve the average time spent on your website? Here are some effective pointers in this regard:
1. Decrease load times
Reduced load time can assist lower your site’s bounce rate, which can enhance the average session duration.
2. Optimize your navigation
Website navigation encourages visitors to access the info quickly, such as your blog post or the pricing info of a service that you offer. A solid navigation system can increase the likelihood of visitors acting and staying on your site for longer durations.
3. Add internal links
Yes, the addition of internal links makes it easier for users to discover and access relevant content on your website. Internal linking makes your website easier to browse thus increasing the chances for your visitors to stay longer on your website
4. Improve the readability of your posts
When assessing the readability of your content, think about the words on the page and the way they appear. Remove any instances of the passive voice from the post, cut long phrases or paragraphs, and add transition words to enhance the flow. Try breaking up sections of text with headings, subheadings, and bullet points to improve the aesthetic of the content. Also, make sure you use a simple font and a convenient color scheme.
Takeaway
The time for which a user stays on your website depends largely on the efforts you put forth. Average time on page and average session duration are critical measures to evaluate the success of your content and your traffic quality. Perhaps, you can work on your site to ensure that the visitors could stay longer on your site. Using certain benchmarks for measuring the website performance would be a boon in your efforts.
If you found this interesting, have any questions, or would like to learn more, our Branding Agency in Dubai can help, please drop us a line at puneet.ae
