There are two types of content created online. Viral type/hopeful content aims purely at increased visibility, but not necessarily brand awareness, through social media engagement. The second type of content that is thoroughly thought through, which aims at solving a problem or answering a question.
When focusing on viral content, the time someone spends on your site may not be as relevant as social media shares. However, if your content strategy is focused on business value, then time on page is valuable when measuring how much of the content you’re producing is of interest to your readers.
Ultimately, content marketing is a constant balancing act between what brings the most audience and how much of that audience actually results in quality leads. Time on page reflects the quality of your content strategy by measuring how valuable your content is to readers, whether it solves their problems or simply sends them off to someone else who does.
Time spent on site and its correlation to SEO rankings
Whenever someone comes into your webpage and finds what they were looking for, generally results in increased time spent on site and greater user engagement. This can positively affect your SEO rankings since search engines have indicators as to your website being one that provides value to content consumers.
Time on page reflects the actual engagement users have with your content so in order to increase it, you need to focus on the same aspects that are part of your content optimization process that makes for a valuable content strategy.
Quality copywriting:
You generally always want to give your readers a reason to stay on your site. Content writing for digital media requires it to be brief and to the point in order to deliver a clear message through your unique voice. If your readers are engaged in your writing, they’re more eager to continue browsing your site to discover what they’re looking for.
Readability:
Each type of content brings different ‘readability ratings’. For example, a scientific article will have a lesser ‘readability rating’ than an entertainment one. While both could receive equal engagement, the time on page for each will most likely vary.
Content length:
Just like readability ratings, the length of your content will depend on your target audience and how much are they willing to read. If your post is too long and too complicated for them, your time on site may be affected.
Well picked, semantic keywords:
Appropriate related keywords make it easier for users to find and read your content online. Semantic keywords are words that are all a related search term. Knowing how to use them makes it easier to create unique, engaging content that is not overstuffed with the same words, therefore increasing the quality of the reader’s experience.
Pictures:
The quality of your images is always important when it comes to publishing content. You want them to be the best looking available since this affects user experience and time on page. An article or page with bad images will likely result in a higher bounce rate because it gives your content a bad look.
Time on page is valuable for your content strategy because it helps you measure your real user engagement and the real interest your content is producing.
If your focus is on business value, your content strategy should be proportionally directed towards increasing your reader’s time on page, which in turn may give your SEO rankings a boost and importantly convert into more quality leads.