Dwell Time vs. Bounce Rate vs. Time on Page: What’s the Difference?

Dwell Time vs. Bounce Rate vs. Time on Page: What’s the Difference?

by | Jan 14, 2020 | Advanced SEO, SEO Strategy, SEO Tips

The most common misconception about dwell time, bounce rate, and time on page, is that they’re all the same thing. While they’re extremely similar in some ways, each one serves a unique purpose in the grand scheme of search engine metrics. If you’ve ever been confused as to why they matter, and how to accurately use each metric, read on to find out.

It’s A Thin Line Between Metrics

Dwell time, bounce rate, and time on page are all about numbers, namely percentages in some form or another. Dwell time is the length of time a user spends looking at a site after they select the link from an SERP, before going back to the SERP. Bounce rate is the percentage of visitors who visit one page and then click to any other page on or off your site. Finally, time on page refers to the time a user spends anywhere on your page before leaving. If it all sounds very similar, it is. The key difference between all three is that dwell time is solely SERP-based, links from other areas aren’t included in metric. Both bounce rate and time on page take all visitors into account, not just those flown in from SERPs.

Why Does It Matter If They’re Different?

Each of these metrics offers information about the quantity and quality of visits to your website, but in its own way. Let’s take a look at each one, why it matters, and what you can do to improve them.

What Is Dwell Time?

Dwell time is an important factor in SEO strategy, because it’s solely SERP-based. Knowing if your links in SERPs are leading users to the best area on your site is important. The first thing you should know about dwell time in regard to metrics is that it fluctuates by business or business intent. For example, if you operate a weather site or a retail business, it may take less than five minutes for people to get what they want from a link. In that event, your dwell time would be naturally low. On the other hand, blogs and videos can expect higher dwell times because it takes a while to read articles or watch videos. Start compiling all the metrics related to dwell time to find the ideal average dwell time for your site. Once you have that information, use the following tips to help you reach dwell time goals.

  • Stop spamming users: Don’t use invasive or disruptive ads like pop-ups or auto-scroll videos–users hate that. One of the surest ways to lose a customer is to force them to watch or click through interstitial ads to get to your content. Make the answer to their search engine inquiry non-intrusive and easy to find.
  • Make Quality Content a Priority: Create useful content that’s actionable, accessible, and entertaining. Only use links if they are reputable and helpful. Make other content relevant to search topics accessible on the page so users don’t need to dig.
  • Speed Matters: Load time is just as important as content. Dwell time will suffer from poor load speeds, so use speed optimization tools like Pingdom’s Website Speed Test to see how your site measures up. Speed in terms of use is just as important as load time speeds. While scrolling pages may be a hassle, done correctly they can also help search engines parse data quicker and make content faster to read.

Another important piece of meeting your dwell time ideal is to focus on conversion optimization. If conversions are poor, it could be the quality of your content, speed issues, or broken links causing people to leave or never gain access to your site.

Bounce Rate

A bounce rate that’s too high can clue you into major issues, like a lack of dynamic content or that dwell times have fallen way below average for your business. Neither one is good. In some cases, a high bounce rate is normal, for instance, a weather forecast site won’t have high dwell times because it doesn’t take that long to check a forecast. The need was met and the user moves one, so in that instance, a fairly high bounce rate is a good thing. For sites that are strictly mobile, the bounce rates you can also expect to experience higher bounce rates. If your site offers online training or deals in retail, a lower bounce rate is better because you expect people to stay a bit longer. Again, as with dwell time, there are no specific good or bad average rates, as they vary by niche, but general criteria are available in the table below.

General Bounce Rate Range Indicators
 Good  26-40%
 Average  41-55%
 Fair  56-70%
 Poor  ≥ 71%

If you hit over 90%, something is majorly wrong with your website, because people are leaving immediately. A spike this high can indicate one of the following major issues:

  • Poor load speeds
  • Bad content or lack of engaging content
  • Poor overall design

Bounce rate is an important indicator of what areas of your website design need an upgrade and lets businesses know if analytics software tracking is off. There are a few areas to consider when tracking bounce rate:

  • User intent: Did the page meet user intent, did the page accurately cover user search inquiry?
  • Type of page: Is the page relevant to user search engine inquiry?
  • Quality of page: Is the content actionable, useful, engaging, and informative?
  • Quality of traffic: Is the page attracting the right type of traffic
  • Device type: The device users access from can affect bounce rates. Is the average user accessing from desktop, laptop, or mobile?

Another way to find your ideal bounce rate would be viewing top sites that offer similar services or products as your website. Bounce rates have value because they are easy to measure, linked to business goals, and improving them can help reduce latency issues.

Time Spent On Page

This metric is affected by bounce rate, but isn’t the same thing. TSOP is simply a measure of time that anyone who accesses the site spends on a given page. If the exit percentage is high then the time spent on page average is less reliable. Low exit percentages generally indicate an accurate reflection of TSOP. Exit percentages are the percentage of total exits from a page, after time spent on that page. One of the best ways to get accurate TSOP metrics is to use event tracking methods that determine the following:

  • If the user scrolled
  • If the user interacted with the page (videos, sharing buttons, links, etc.)
  • If the user went on to another page of the site

Without event tracking methods, TSOP won’t account for the people who leave their browser open during supper, or left the browser open on their tablet or phone when they went into the store. Tracking specific actions instead of just time periods will give you actionable information.

If you already have a stellar SEO strategy in place, none of this should present an issue. If you don’t, you may want to consider finding a SEO content powerhouse like eZdia to help you develop one. Our professional SEO strategists and content writers can help you make sense of the ins-and-outs of search engine growing pains.

Want to learn more about how our eCommerce seo optimization strategies can help you to gain better visibility on the web?

Know More
Important Factors Influencing Purchase in E-commerce

Important Factors Influencing Purchase in E-commerce

by | Dec 27, 2019 | Ecommerce, Marketplaces

In e-commerce, there are certain factors from the customer’s point of view which influence their purchasing decision. Here’s a look at those concerns that leverage customer buying behavior:

1. Good Product Quality

One of the most important factors influencing consumer buying behavior is the quality of the product and the quality of information about that product. These have a significant impact on the visitors to your website and turn them into potential buyers. Your products must reflect different geographic and regional flavors, speak loud the cultural ethos and fit the trend of the season. Product descriptions, specifications, catalogues and images all influence the customer buying decision process. A convincing and well-crafted representation of the products is sure to fetch better results.

2. Free Shipping Experience

Free Shipping is the second most principal factor in influencing an e-commerce consumer’s purchase decision. Free shipping is an attractive element for frequent online buyers as they save on the cross-border shipping cost to quite an extent.

3. Easy Return Policy

A simple, well-defined return policy is the third most influencing factor in urging customers buy a product. A customer-friendly return policy that’s laid down in clear language is convincing to online consumers. A well-structured return policy in case of faulty goods or mismatched sizes is mandatory for every genre of products, from apparel and household accessories to electronic goods and automobile parts. An easy, no-questions-asked return policy grows a sense of trust among customers for your website or brand.

4. Reviews from Customers

Healthy and positive product reviews from existing customers invite new customers. Appreciating existing customers and positive reviewers with award programs, such as free gifts or discounts on the next purchase, strengthens the bond further. Proactive initiative to resolve the problems of not-so-satisfied customers is also a kind gesture. These loyalty-building gestures encourage a growth in your regular buyer database.

5. Easy Navigation

Most e-commerce websites come with well-defined categories of products. That way, a customer can frame a very good idea of the exact location of the products they are looking for. Incorporating the keywords into the search bar also helps in navigating through the pages and finding the desired products or categories quickly. Accurate keywords create better search results. A well-designed visual sitemap, proper product listing and easy to understand controls like previous/next commands all contribute to simple and easy access, which positively influences customer buying behavior.

6. Hassle-free Checkout

Easy checkout logic is yet another deciding factor. Customers don’t appreciate a complicated checkout procedure. Anticipate their needs and make checkout a simple and logical process. Customers wish to complete the payment within one or two steps through debit/credit cards or net banking. They may need items to be shipped to a different address. They may have discount codes, gift cards or coupons to apply. Once these checkout features are taken care of, customers are more likely to continue with their online shopping.

7. Special Purchase

While shopping online, a customer can opt for several special purchases. Unlike many physical stores, e-commerce services make special categories and special custom sizes available in one destination. Not only this, special deals and special sections also create quite a buzz among customers and convert them into potential buyers.

To have customers coming back for more, e-commerce firms must take care of some factors influencing consumer buying behavior:

  • must make sure that their website is stable and easily accessible
  • must invest in building trust and a strong reputation
  • must focus on maintaining appropriate content volume
  • must focus on security and privacy policies to protect customers
  • must promote their website to increase awareness

In an urge to retain existing customers and draw new customers, e-commerce firms are constantly recognizing and implementing customer-friendly actions. All these efforts are made to influence customer buying behavior and take e-commerce to the next level of prosperity.

Want to learn more about how our eCommerce seo optimization strategies can help you to gain better visibility on the web?

Know More
Setting KPIs for Product Pages and Improving Performance

Setting KPIs for Product Pages and Improving Performance

by | Dec 17, 2019 | Ecommerce

Before we start talking about things you can do to improve product pages that drive KPIs, it might be helpful to review a few basic concepts. Let’s start by discussing KPIs — what they are, why they’re so important, and how to set them.

KPIs, key performance indicators, provide businesses with concrete data regarding website user experience, consumer preferences, and customer behavior. They give you hard data you can use to meet specific business goals by letting you know what’s working and what’s not. The right KPIs are a must for both growing and established businesses. Not every company needs to measure the same things. KPIs must be appropriate for your business, marketing, and sales goals.

The first step when it comes to getting started with performance measurement is to determine your goals. Figuring out how to measure KPIs comes towards the end of the process. After you’ve articulated your goals, think about what factors lead to success when it comes to your objectives. Select performance benchmarks with those elements in mind. Finally, make sure the measurement tool you choose fits the information you’re looking to gather. You’ll need web analytics software to gather and parse the data. From Google Analytics to paid tools with tons of features, you’ll find several options to help you get a handle on what’s going on with your e-commerce site. A company with web analytic experience can help you make optimal sense of the findings.

When it comes to eCommerce, product pages dominate sales and marketing strategies. They literally drive and create eCommerce success. To increase sales and overall profit, you’ve got to know how your product pages are working. Product page KPIs provide an efficient way to evaluate if you’re doing the right things to grow your eCommerce business. They give you insight into metrics like how long consumers typically stay on your product pages, organic traffic rates, and what items shoppers frequently purchase together. Other types of key performance indicators include how quickly pages on your site load, number of page visits, and even some measures of brand loyalty. Let’s review a few things you can do with product pages to maximize the chances of hitting your performance goals.

How to Improve Product Pages to Boost Organic Traffic

Let’s say you’ve set a goal of increasing your website’s organic traffic as a way to make more sales. Your research team runs the numbers, and now you have absolute proof that your company needs to do something about its lackluster organic traffic numbers. You decide to make some changes to your eCommerce site to fix the situation.

Using long-tail keywords in product descriptions should be one of the first options you explore. Let’s talk for a minute about the two broad keyword categories: short and long-tail. Short-tail keywords are not terribly specific, and they tend to generate large numbers of queries. Since so many sites have text with these frequently occurring terms, including short-tail keywords typically won’t help you improve your search position that much. Long-tail keywords, on the other hand, provide more specificity. If pants is your short-tail keyword, potential long-tail variants might include, blue button-up pants, blue straight leg pants, and blue cargo pants.

Adding long-tail keywords to product pages provides a simple, unobtrusive, and natural way to raise your search visibility. It also has the potential to lift sales. Shoppers tend to search using long-tail keywords when they’re ready to make a purchase. Include long-tail search terms in title tags, meta descriptions and H1 headers to get the most out of this SEO strategy.

Optimize Your Product Pages to Reign in Pesky Bounce Rates

You added a few long-tail keywords to your product pages, and your organic search results started to soar. You decide there might actually be something to this KPI for product pages stuff. You ask around, and your web genius says that you really should look into your site’s bounce rates. Your analytics savant runs the numbers and sends you an email describing the results. Things don’t look so good. It turns out that large numbers of people just go elsewhere after getting to your product pages from search engine results.

People typically bounce in two situations: when the page they end up on doesn’t contain the item they’re really searching for, or when the page itself turns them off for some reason. You ask your web person dig a bit deeper. A few days later, another report appears in your inbox. It turns out that shoppers seem to be getting to the right page from search engine results. But they spend a few seconds there and then leave. Your web analytics master suggests there might be something about your product pages that disappoints or frustrates shoppers.

You see reducing bounces as a promising way to increase sales and resolve to act. Here’s a list of six product page optimizing must-dos that’ll reduce those dreaded bounces.

  • Increase page load speeds
  • Add killer visual content that accurately displays products
  • Get rid of distracting popups and advertisements
  • Create crisp, easy-to-read copy with compelling headers and subheaders
  • Make it simple for customers to initiate a live chat directly from product pages
  • Provide accurate and engaging product descriptions

Make a Few Easy Tweaks to Increase Brand Trust

You optimized your product pages and started working long-tail keywords into your product descriptions and your company’s profits really started to rise. Fewer bounces and high organic search results led to increased sales. Convinced this product page KPI stuff is driving your rising profits, you turn to your web team and ask them if they have a way to provide insight into how much trust customers have in your brand. Your web all stars suggest taking a look at the number of people who come back to make another purchase. The head of your research team sends you an article explaining that repeat customer numbers provide a pretty accurate measure of brand loyalty, which studies suggest grows out of brand trust. Your web department does a bit of investigating. It turns out you’re not getting as many repeat customers as you’d like.

You’d love to increase your customers’ brand loyalty. You paid attention in those marketing classes when professors talked about the link between long-term business sustainability and customer loyalty. Here are five easy-to-implement product page tweaks to get you moving in the right direction.

  • Add customer reviews to your product pages. They help the decision-making process and increase the likelihood that a shopper will follow through and make a purchase.
  • Include an easy-to-interpret product star rating or something similar. It gives shoppers a quick, convenient way to gather information that drives purchasing decisions.
  • Provide useful product descriptions. Put the things most important to your audience front and center in your copy. For bonus points, tailor your descriptions to the interests and needs of your target market.
  • Clean up broken links and create a well-designed 404 page. Nothing says sketchy louder than a site full of broken links, all of which lead to some generic, unprofessional-looking 404 page.
  • Put shipping, return, and warranty information right on the product page. Don’t make your customers search for this sort of crucial information. It’ll do two things: improve brand trust and reduce page bounces.

Product Content Writing Services

Want to learn more about how our product content writing services can help you to outrank your competitors?

Know More
7 Steps to Building a Successful Customer Behavior Analytics Model

7 Steps to Building a Successful Customer Behavior Analytics Model

by | Dec 6, 2019 | Content Strategy, Ecommerce, Retail

Having a comprehensive customer behavior analytics model is vital to ecommerce companies. Studies show that companies that use customer behavior information to their advantage outperform competitors by 85 percent in sales growth. Additionally, estimates show those who use behavior analytics beating competitors by an extra 25 percent in gross margins. The current influx of data available to measure customer behavior patterns is making it easier for ecommerce businesses to use analytics in the following ways:

  • Support core sales and marketing goals
  • Increase customer satisfaction rates
  • Improve product/service criteria
  • Optimize marketing channels
  • Make insightful improvements to overall sales strategies
  • Increase customer loyalty

Developing a customer behavior analytics model is vital to retail success for a variety of reasons, and ecommerce companies shouldn’t be without one. Read on to discover seven key ways to build the right customer behavior analytics model for your ecommerce business.

1. Use Detailed Data

As previously mentioned, there is an influx of big data in ecommerce businesses that help monitor customer behavior. Present analytics platforms can delve even deeper into consumer patterns, and tracking tools have become far more accurate. Estimates for the 2020 fiscal year suggest that ecommerce sales will pass over 4 trillion, and companies with a pulse on consumer behavior will take a larger chunk of those sales. The following forms of data can help retailers build a broad customer behavior analytics model:

  • Order tracking: includes buying patterns, most purchased products, and reordering habits
  • Consumer engagement: helps gauge what features, products, and information matters most to consumers
  • Changes in order patterns: helps businesses anticipate possible upcoming ordering changes that an online consumer may go through
  • Conversion rates: how many consumers convert from visitation to purchasing from a brand
  • Retention rates: how many consumers remain with a brand long-term
  • User feedback: customer satisfaction ratings, reviews, comments, and likes

The ultimate goal of using customer behavior analytics in retail is to get actionable insight into what consumers are looking for. Criteria for that can vary by company, which means the data needed can also vary; the list above gives forms of data that are useful to every ecommerce business. This is just a short list of ideas, and there are many forms of data that help ecommerce businesses build relevant models for customer behavior analytics. When determining what data to add, keep all major business specific KPIs in mind to get the best possible analysis of consumer behavior.

2. Throw Out the RFM Model

Use a life-time value (LTV) model instead of a recency, frequency, and monetary (RFM) model. Ecommerce businesses in particular benefit from using LTV over RFM. Digital tracking and an increase in the accuracy of analytics platforms has made RFM models a poor choice for customer behavior analytics. The reason they aren’t a good fit is because the majority of the key indicators for that model are based on immediate sales. They also primarily focus on those who spend the most money, and they lack any tangible insight into retaining new customers long-term. LTV models can provide actionable insight to take for individual consumers, target their long-term value to the ecommerce business, and select appropriate marketing for them.
SterotypebustingCBAmodel.PNG

3. Stop Making Assumptions Based on Age, Demographics, or Finances

There are 35-year-old people who watch cartoons, and believe it or not, that’s an excellent point of reference for this segment. Customer behavior isn’t measured by simply lumping age groups, demographics, or income levels into tidy piles and assuming what they will or will not respond to. Making assumptions about customer behavior patterns is not conducive to developing a successful or accurate customer behavior analytics model. The goal is to start thinking of customers as individuals, not groups. A 70-year-old can buy hiking gear and a 20-year-old may purchase knitting needles. To get the best possible results, find out what individual consumers want by basing analytics on real data and not assumptions. In short, don’t stereotype.

4. Use Predictive Analysis

Predictive analysis is an excellent way to draw in potential customers, keep existing customers, and anticipate future needs in order to suggest relevant products. Predictive analytics drive the following ecommerce metrics:

  • Customer acquisition: helps by tracking the consumer’s journey from the initial site visit to checkout to personalize their experience
  • Customer retention: helps by anticipating problem areas to repair based on data such as customer feedback or drop rates
  • Customer growth: helps retailers create calls to action based on ordering patterns during specific periods

Personalized advertising, suggestions, and promotions can all be tailored to customers using data obtained from predictive analysis. Using predictive analytics to understand the behavior of customers is another way to use big data in ecommerce to make changes that improve retention.

5. Know Your Goal and Create Steps to Reach It

Building a comprehensive customer behavior analytics model means knowing what goals your ecommerce company wants to achieve. There are many steps to building customer behavior analytics that companies can take advantage of to reach goals, including :

  • Set analytics goals and KPI’s, and track them
  • Determine critical paths, then break them up to get the most data
  • Set user properties to receive data on customers using your site
  • Continually monitor and adapt analytics models based on consumer practices and new data
  • Measure success of new products to determine their impact on sales
  • Use funnel analysis methods

Having specific goals in mind while developing customer behavior analytics helps ecommerce businesses make marketing and advertising decisions and changes based on reliable data.

6. Incorporate Funnel Analysis

Funnel analysis is particularly useful for determining abandonment rates through each stage of the checkout process. They also help establish the set of steps consumers must go through to reach any specific outcome on a website. Funnel analysis helps ecommerce organizations visualize data by showing drop off points. For this reason, these types of analytics are ideal for verifying drop rates, tracking site abandonment, and showing weaknesses that exist in each stage of the process. Funneling is also an excellent tool for ascertaining why conversions were unsuccessful.

7. Search Out Customer Access Points

Are you getting the most customer engagement from external or internal links? Are they accessing the site through social media posts or click ads? It’s important to pinpoint consumer access points for your brand and track behavior across all points. This type of behavioral analysis helps businesses target areas that produce the most clicks and conversions. That way, retailers can position ads appropriately to maximize their potential draw. Being able to allocate resources properly is one of the key benefits of analyzing consumer behaviors. For customer behavior analytics models to be successful, they have to include data from all areas of the business that consumers have access to. Access areas to include during the process of developing a customer behavior analytics model include:

  • Primary website: main ecommerce site
  • Apps: downloads, uninstalls, in-app purchases, and feedback
  • Social media: Facebook®, Twitter®, Instagram®, etc.
  • Click ads: any advertisement that provides a direct link to primary site
  • External links: links on other sites that direct users to primary site or other company resource

Metrics measurements should span across any location that gives users access to your brand, or they are not truly accurate. Using data from websites alone can give a lopsided view of customer behavior, because not everyone will access your product through the main site. It all circles back to the importance of analyzing customer behavior on an individual level.

The insight gained into the personal habits of customers is crucial to recommendation searches, email campaigns, and product suggestions. Do you have any insights into creating a successful customer behavior analytics model? Comment so readers can add them to the information they gained from this post. If you still need guidance on how meet your ecommerce consumer goals, contact eZdia where our professionals will be more than happy to help you succeed.

Author: Kristin Ann Hassel

eCommerce Content Optimization

Want to learn more about how our eCommerce content services can help you to outrank your competitors?

Know More
Creating a Seller Management Platform for the E-Commerce Marketplace

Creating a Seller Management Platform for the E-Commerce Marketplace

by | Nov 24, 2019 | Ecommerce, SEO Strategy

In an ever-growing e-commerce sector, marketplaces are looking for ways to onboard quality sellers, improve the customer experience for various pages and increase the conversion rate for their sellers. And sellers, in their quest to sell better, are continually adding their own stores and products in these marketplaces. There’s one thing that both sellers and marketplaces need: good content. (more…)