[Updated January 26, 2017]
“Dwell time” is one of the easier-confused terms in the SEO industry. When discussing “dwell time”, people often seem to be talking about “Time-on-page” instead.
Let’s try to be as clear and comprehensive as we can:
“Dwell time” Defined by Bing (Less than a Minute = Poor)
Dwell time is quite an old term that was coined (I believe) by @DuaneForrester in his old article “How to Build Quality Content”
…dwell time. The time between when a user clicks on our search result and when they come back from your website tells a potential story.
In other words, Dwell time is the time it takes the user to return back to search results:
Time on page |
GA Bounce rate |
*Dwell time* |
|
Means… |
The time the user spent on the web page before going ANYWHERE (may be an internal page, other link, ad, etc) |
The % of visitors who didn’t go to another page of the site |
The time the user spent on the web page before going BACK to search |
Manifests… |
A questionable quality signal (The user might have got the answer really fast and just left) |
A questionable quality signal (The user might have just closed the page after getting the answer) |
A strong quality signal (The user is likely to be looking for more info since (s)he clicked back to search results. The user is not satisfied) |
Duane even mentions what’s supposed to be a good signal:
A minute or two is good as it can easily indicate the visitor consumed your content. Less than a couple of seconds can be viewed as a poor result.
Wow. You’d never see such a clear-cut definition from search engine reps these days!
There’s no official confirmation from Google that they are using Dwell time as the signal but the history proves they are likely to be:
Google: Less than ≈ Two Minutes = Poor
Back in (late) 2011 – early 2012 you were given an option to block the domain from *your* search results if you switched back to SERPs too fast after clicking the result.
This is what it used to look like after you clicked back to search results immediately after landing on Matt’s blog:

[Image source: googleblog.blogspot.com]
The numbers:
Later, apart from blocking the sites you chose to click back from, you were given an opportunity to “plus” pages where you spent a considerable amount of time at. The way it worked:
- Dwell time less than 2 minutes => “Block”
- Dwell time more than ~7 minutes => “Plus”
Rewarding the *Authors* with “Huge” Dwell Time
In late 2012 we saw another proof of Google paying attention to the dwell time. It was happening with Author-verified Google search results:
- The user clicked the Aurthorship-enhanced Google search result,
- The user spent ≈15-20 minutes on that page
- The user clicked browser “Back” button to search results
- The user saw “More by” that author under the same search result:
Update
Ahrefs published an in-depth guide on the matter explaining the concept of dwell time as well as related terms.
Any other thoughts and observations on the Dwell time? Please share them in the comments!
@NinjasMarketing “Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/2Id2W1xfmC
New @webuildpages: “Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/1ABbAsuttV
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/ElH8vqBEbV
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/FQ8strMj5q #OnlineMarketing
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/RpaVaP9mij #seo
What if It was a GA metric? “@NinjasMarketing: Dwell Time: What is It & What is a Good Dwell Time as per Bing/Google http://t.co/C7dqUL3Rr9”
‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/UIONZmOOb5
‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google – http://t.co/KyQ1dqYWKd #bing #google
‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/RlXGDwaY0u http://t.co/W4DY2Lk5XX
@seosmarty @NinjasMarketing but that’d only for big no?
@gunshotdigital not sure what you are asking 🙂 Bing you mean? cc @NinjasMarketing
@seosmarty @NinjasMarketing oh yes, sorry , meant bing
Great definition. Looking forward to the follow-up that tells you how to measure it.
That was my q as well! RT @kernmedia: What if It was a GA metric? -> Dwell Time… http://t.co/zuyeZzNzR8”
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/COuZBreFj6 via @ninjasmarketing by @seosmarty
Dwell Time: What is It and What is a Good "Dwell Time" as per Bing and Google http://t.co/YEQ6IxfyRe http://t.co/hld7p9svCB
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/TxKc0xMUfX RT @seosmarty
You better know this: “Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing & Google http://t.co/nFuFZiLDJV
MT @amabaie: What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/p3I1cGmlJp RT @seosmarty
“@AimeeCJordan “@clickfire MT @amabaie: What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/GQjp0dYtx3 ”” @JohnGreenland
Great explanation, thanks for sharing.
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google /by @annsmarty http://t.co/DCaL2H5lai #dwelltime
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/v4epiAsLbJ
http://t.co/KT8qhALkzq
Love it!: ‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google’ by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/TPkzN6bPaj
“Dwell Time” or when is a visitor a prospect or not when visiting from Google? Nice definition! http://t.co/6e9j32z5hA #SEO #SEM
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” by @NinjasMarketing http://t.co/pMpPcHdI7U http://t.co/3XRfE808cu
Why “Dwell time” is a stronger quality signal than Time On Page and Bounce Rate: http://t.co/vKFSRVByoD By @seosmarty http://t.co/PY9B0KTCDG
RT @RavenTools: Why “Dwell time” is a stronger quality signal than Time On Page and Bounce Rate: http://t.co/fUM2wza24h By @seosmarty…
How Google seems to reward user ‘Dwell Time’ metric: http://t.co/vNjm9GPM4E http://t.co/wcy8dV4Nob by @seosmarty screenshot: @RavenTools
‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google’ http://t.co/XTCY1OVYBY @seosmarty @NinjasMarketing
‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google’ by @annsmarty http://t.co/tqmtyrJaVe
‘“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google’ by @ http://t.co/rl74cNrWsL by @seosmarty #SEO
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per Bing and Google http://t.co/FvBDWp9oHS #seo #conversion #analytics
More #DwellTime talk incl possible Google rewards at +2min and +15min dwell times @seosmarty’s http://t.co/vNjm9GPM4E
In case you missed it last week! Dwell time: What is it and how search engines may be using it in their algorithm http://t.co/RlXGDwaY0u
“Dwell Time”: What is It and What is a Good “Dwell Time” as per #Bing and #Google http://t.co/PFSfKiJWr3