The average time spent by a user on a web page is an important signal that usually reveals their engagement and interest in a content or information page. This is less true for a transactional intent webpage, where quality is instead defined by the less time spent completing an action. Comparing it to the offline world, I’m happy to spend a lot of time watching a show I like, less happy to spend a lot of time queuing at a counter.
On Google Analytics , average time on page is a metric to consider carefully. On UA, the time between a first “hit” that corresponds to the loading of the page to subsequent “hits”, corresponding to an event on the page, was calculated. In summary, the average time on page was calculated as the ratio between the duration of the session and the number of page views, subtracting from this value the last page that is closed without generating a “hit”. On GA4, this metric has been renamed to “Average Engagement Duration” and indicates how long the web page has been featured and active. The measurement stops when the measurement is closed.
Average time on page is a signal used by Google to indirectly evaluate the quality of an information page. This is an matter known to the most careful SEO experts, but often debated. This is confirmed, in addition to an empirical observation of traffic data, by the confidential documents that emerged from the Google Leak of May 2024. Attributes such as “badClicks”, “goodClicks”, “lastLongestClicks” and “unsquashedClicks” suggest that the algorithm measures the user’s clickstream on a site through data collected by Google Chrome.
After we have sen the importance of the average time on page metric, let’s see how we can improve it by working on content alone.
Embedded on the page videos
If they are consistent with the content and tone of voice, add videos within the article. They can be videos made on purpose and uploaded on YouTube, or clips made by other users (be careful that the possibility of sharing through embedding is active). The important thing is to maintain consistency.
For those who make online content, a video has many advantages: it is easy to use, generates a “hit” every time it is started and keeps the viewer on a page for a long time. For this reason, embedding is better than an external link. It also adds information and improves the user experience.
Titles and table of content
Divide the content into paragraphs and use headings and subheadings (the structure with the correct H1, H2 and H3 is essential!). This way, you help the reader move around the page and easily find the information he is looking for. This leads to a better user experience, a lower bounce rate, and an increase in average time on page.
The table of content is a feature related to on-page titles and subtitles, that can further improve user experience and the metric of average time on site. In short, it is a summary of the page contents, as in Wikipedia entries, with links to the corresponding sections. For WordPress, I recommend the LuckyWP Table of Contents plugin. In addition to helping the visitor in his navigation path, the table of content increases interactions because each click corresponds to a “hit”.
Images to increase average time on page
Images can help you better understand content and make it pleasant to read. Of course, images should not be added just because they are beautiful, but because they add information. In this way, the reader pauses and spends additional time on the page.
Each image should have a caption that contextualizes it, provides information to Google, and increases reading time.
Infographics to attract and retain the reader
A middle ground between text and image is infographics. Its visual impact captures the attention and prompts the reader to linger and spend more time on the page. A beautiful infographic can also be a method to improve this metric, but it must be consistent and graphically very accurate.
Relevant content influences average time on page
In this article, the keyword consistency comes up often. Any type of content (a text, an image or a video) must never go out of the path announced in the title, otherwise the reader feels betrayed and leaves. Quality content, easy to read and with useful and original information, has more chances to keep the visitor on the page for a long time.
