26 May
The time visitors spend on your site directly affects your conversions and sales. If they abandon it after a few seconds, they are probably never coming back.
More than 52% of the visitors spend less than 20 seconds on a website. This means that a lot of people click on the websites, but they do not read the content there. This is a clear indication that some things need to be fixed.
No matter what niche your website focuses on, you should focus on increasing the average time spent on the site. If a visitor spends more than 15-20 seconds on the website, you can expect a higher conversion rate and reduce bounce rate. You can try different ways to increase your website engagement and boost the conversion rate.
What is average time on page?
Average time on page is the average amount of time that website visitors spend on a single page. Simply put, it’s the difference between the point when a user enters the page for the first time and the moment when they leave.
It’s important to differentiate average time on page and session duration, as these are two different metrics.
Session duration is defined as the entire time that visitors spend on a website, i.e. the sum of the time-on-page for all the pages that a user visits within a single session. Average session duration is calculated by dividing the total amount of time spent on a website by the total amount of users.
Number of sessions per user is another important metric. Total number of sessions divided by the total number of users. Now that we know the key metrics to track your time on site, let’s get down and dirty with some statistics.
Tips to increase visitors average time on page
Here are some tips to increase visitors’ average time on your website. Let’s have a look at them:
1. Tidy up your design
A simple and clean user interface (UI) would attract more users to your website. Remember that you have only a few seconds to attract users. Hence, make sure that your site has a clean and easy-to-use UI so that you can convince the visitors to stay on the website.
An average web user spends less than a few seconds on a site before they decide to stay or leave. This is a very short time window, in which you need to convince them to stay. The best way to do that is by cleaning up your site’s design. Your most important content should go up. So, your users should instantly see the useful part of a page when they land on your site.
2. Improve readability of your pages
Another way to increase time on page is simply to make it easier for people to read your content. Make all pages on your website easy to read on all devices. While we talk about readability make sure to consider these points:
- Font family: When choosing a font for your web pages, the first thing you need to decide is which fonts work best on the internet.
- Font size: So what font-size should you use? That depends, of course, on what font you’re using. Make your font size large enough for easy reading, but small enough to avoid unnecessary scrolling.
- Column width: The width of your column is another factor that affects readability – how much horizontal movement the eye has to make. People don’t read on the Internet, they scan. So very wide columns of text put a strain on your readers’ eyes.
- Line spacing: Line spacing or line height also has an impact on the ‘scannability’ of your text. If your lines are too close together, it makes horizontal scanning difficult. But if your lines are too far apart, vertical scanning becomes difficult.
- White space: White space around your text, images and headings makes your content easier to read. Always break up your text as much as possible, with images, bullet points, shorter paragraphs etc.
3. Add high quality images
Images are the most engaging form of content on the web. As human beings, we love to look at images more than reading text. This is why you see most popular websites use fullscreen background images on their landing pages.
The best place to find better quality images is ShutterStock. They have thousands of images, vectors, and illustrations that you can use on your website.You can also find high quality royalty free images on many websites.
4. Optimize and beautify your images
Optimize your images before adding them to your website. Most high quality images are also hi-resolution images. They are larger in pixels, pixel density, and file size. Using them as it is will affect your website’s page speed.
Use image editing tools like Canva and PiktoChart to create your own graphics. By using these tools, you can create professional looking graphics for your website.
5. Add videos for a more interactive experience
Users from all over the world watch hundreds of millions of hours of videos on YouTube every day. This single fact is enough to prove how much users love videos.
Videos are one of the most effective, interactive, and engaging forms of content. Adding videos to your pages can boost user engagement and will increase the time users spend on your website.
6. Make internal linking a habit
Another way to ensure visitors spend more time on your site and increase bounce rate is internal linking. Each article or page of yours needs to have links to other (relevant) pages or articles on your site. This strategy is great for your website’s SEO. The best part is that you don’t need to buy any tool or plugin to do it.
7. Offer content upgrades
Offering users content upgrades is a popular technique used by top bloggers and online marketers. Basically you offer users a chance to get bonus content by performing an action.
This action could be anything. You can ask users to signup for your mailing list, register for a free account, or fill out a survey. Content upgrades can effectively boost user engagement, bring back old users, and increase your conversion rates at the same time.
8. Add comment worthy content
Since the early days of blogging, comments have become kind of a standard to judge user engagement. Comments are also the most easy to implement engagement tool on any website. Most website builders come with built-in comments.
The real question is how do you get people to comment on your website? An effective technique is to ask users questions in your content. Simply add your personal opinion and ask users what they think.
9. Add success stories
People love stories, and they love success stories even more. Success stories, whether they are yours or someone who inspires you, have a much higher chance of going viral. The reason is simple, we all like to see how other people have succeeded in their goals. We find these stories inspiring, motivational, and we feel compelled to share these.
10. Show credibility
Users want to know why they should trust your website. Adding photos of real people on your web pages make it appear a lot more trustworthy. Add bios and testimonials on your pages.
Linking to your social profiles can also help you establish credibility and build influence.Add trust marks such as secure site signs, BBB ratings, awards and certifications to your website. It gives your users confidence to share their information or do business on your website.
11. Target abandoning users
No matter what you do people are going to leave your website. But you can still give the users one last chance to convert into subscribers or customers. Offer a special discount, ask them to subscribe, or take a look at some cool feature that they might have missed.
Also, some users who may have visited your website, but left it without taking appropriate actions can be contacted again via emails or other channels to remind them about your products or services. Properly targeting abandoning visitors can increase returning visitors and decrease your site’s bounce rate significantly.
12. Write irresistible headlines
Headlines are one of the most important parts of your content. Without a compelling headline, even the most comprehensive blog post will go unread. Master the art of headline writing. For example, the writers at BuzzFeed and Upworthy often write upward of twenty different headlines before finally settling on the one that will drive the most traffic, so think carefully about your headline before you hit “publish.”
Wrap up
It may not be an easy task to increase the average time spent on your website. You may have to use a combination of several tricks and tactics to increase the time by visitors and boost the conversion rate. Try using a combination of different tips and tricks and you’ll be able to achieve your business objectives.