Fact-check: “People Don’t Spend Much Time Reading Web Pages”

Fact-check:
“People Don’t Spend Much Time Reading Web Pages”

Research shows that on average people spend about 45 seconds on a website. Even though this may be true, the time spent on a website depends on many different factors. The truth is that people will spend more time reading web pages that offer valuable content and will quickly leave websites that offer nothing new and rather ultra-short pages with not much value. 

The bottom line is you want visitors to spend more time on your website. How much time do YOU spend on a website? With the average time spent on a website being just 45 seconds, you need to know whether your website conveys what you are offering within this time AND what your visitors will find in there that will make them want to discover more.

But this value of 45 seconds is, in fact, half true. It’s just an absolute value.
Because there is a huge amount of visitors that just click on random links and then leave. Those visits are not relevant to the overall interest your website might have as they are far more important than the ones who are really interested in the content you are publishing. That’s why we always need to analyse our visitors’ stats and see what real visitors – the ones that your website is targeting – are interested in, which pages they visit and how much time they spend at each one of them.

 

Your Website Should Convey Your Value Prepositions

Learn More

The Human Attention Span (2018)

Do you ever feel like our attention spans are getting shorter? It’s not just your imagination; new research has revealed that human beings are, indeed, flakier than ever before!
In fact, the average human attention span has shrunk by nearly a quarter in just 15 years, and we’re now lagging behind the humble goldfish in terms of being able to focus on a task or object.
Check out the infographic in this article to get all the details – if you manage to concentrate all the way to the end!
© www.wyzowl.com

Today, many people spend their time reading website page that conveys valuable information and content. If your website does not offer what visitors are looking for then you will experience higher bounce rates. This is why many people are scrambling to add long content to their websites in an effort to attract more new readers, get more leads that can be turned into actual customers, and get additional email subscribers.

Although the popularity of inbound marketing is still growing, the flood of content promises to be even bigger in the future. Most people care about learning and what are you doing to help them learn? People want to know what your business is offering that will solve their problems. Therefore, your homepage should showcase the needs of your clients and how your business will address them. Getting people to spend more time on your website is crucial because:

  • The more you engage people, the more they will see you as an expert in your niche industry and the more trust you will build with your audience.
  • Dwell time or time spent on your site is a ranking factor for Google’s algorithms. The more time people spend on your site, the more points search engine’s algorithms give your website. If people spend more time on your website, the search engines’ algorithms know and believe that your content is quite interesting. Your site will be ranked higher in the search results because if you find it beneficial, then other people will as well.

 

So What Is Better For You Short or Long Content?

60% of all organic clicks usually go to the top three organic results. And 75% of web users rarely scroll past the first page of the search engine results. Therefore, if you are getting most of your website visitors from organic search, you should write long content (more than 1,000 words) that will get ranked highly by the search engines.

However, if you have a built-in audience that engages highly with your business on social platforms and your content is interesting enough that it shares itself, then short content (400-600 words) is enough to keep your prospects interacting with your business.

The guys at Income School have done extensive research in that field and have published several videos on Youtube that better explain how things work, like this one:

 

Find Out What Works For Your Business

If you do not really know whether short or long content works best for your business, you should test it out.  You can start by posting about 10 compelling short articles on your website and then add another 10 interesting long articles. You can then watch how they perform with regards to more traffic, which ones get more shares or comments and which articles keep visitors on your website or drive conversions. Ultimately, your target audience will help you determine the type of content you should be creating for your website based on the metrics you get.

 

Conclusion

We believe that website owners can create more value if they pay close attention to depth instead of breadth. It is not about the number of people who click on your content, but how many people pay attention to your website content. It is more about the number of people that you can make an impression on and connect with that matters.

When you refine your website content, your goal is to keep visitors long enough to persuade them to take the next action and offer an easy process for this action where it is to sign up for services, purchase products, or fill forms.  Every page on your business website should engage your audience with the sole purpose of moving them through the buying cycle and concluding with a sale.

PS: Did you read this entire article or just the introduction? How long did it take?
This article is 980 words long.

 

protected by copyscape

The top 10 reasons visitors are leaving your site within the first few seconds

 

Website Design: Less is More, and Even More

 

Email, print or share this page: