The Importance of Time in Web Design: Part 2
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Once you’ve made your site faster to load and navigate, you can reap the rewards. One of the most direct outcomes of better site speed is increasing your user’s average time on site. Why is this metric important? The longer a user remains on your site, the more they are interacting with your site, which leads to higher engagement. This can then lead to a boost in SEO, as Google sees the increased value of your site, as well as both your conversion rate and raw conversions. As users convert, they become more invested, placing more trust in your site. Invested visitors not only become return visitors, but can help spread your company’s message through word of mouth.
Here are 3 ways to improve session duration:
- Create great, compelling content. It’s not as hard as it seems! Focus on short, potent updates with content that’s easy to consume. Diversify the types of content on your site, leveraging materials you’ve already developed: videos, webinars (tape a conference lecture or internal training), templates, podcasts, infographics, and slideshows.
- Focus on mobile. Don’t do this just because Google uses mobile-friendliness in their pagerank algorithms. Do it because about ⅓ of traffic comes from a mobile device, and up to 27% of users will leave a website immediately if it is not mobile optimized. (But also: do it for Google).
- Facilitate deeper navigation. Make sure your Navigation Bar is visible on most of your site, excluding landing pages and CTA-focused content. You can link to other similar articles on your site (cross-site internal links) to help retain visitors, as well.
Optimizing the Average Time on Site metric can boost visitor interaction on your site while also serving as an important benchmark. Does your site help to foster higher engagement and deeper exploration? Let us know your successes and challenges related to visitor time management by emailing us at webmaster@hdmz.com.
