The world of search engine optimization is obviously one that involves an entire host of factors when it comes to getting ranked. In this article, we are going to take a look at the prospect of getting a site ranked based on visitor retention times with a particular focus on Google.
Best User Experience
What are search engines trying to accomplish with their algorithms? The answer is pretty clear. They are trying to produce the search results that will give the user the best experience possible and get them coming back for more. The question, of course, is how exactly do you go about developing the best experience?
The answer according to the search engines is to simply focus on relevance. The problem is figuring out how to measure relevance. After all, we’ve all visited sites that were terrible but seemed to rank just because they incorporated the relevant keywords into their sites. Surely there must be something beyond just keywords? Well, there is but the search engines have struggled to figure out how to measure it.
Google likes to tout that it looks at 200 plus ranking factors these days. I seriously doubt this is true. Oh, the company may evaluate this number of topics, but some carry so much more weight that they should be the focus of your optimization efforts. One that is getting more attention all the time is visitor retention lengths.
Visitor retention time simply refers to how long a unique visitor stays on your site. Why should this matter? Well, think it through. A site that offers a great user experience is far more likely to see visitors stay for longer periods than other sites because users will be taking advantage of whatever that site offers. This would be a sign of good content and that the site should be moved up in the rankings.
Let’s consider an example. Assume that I am considering buying a home and want to look at potential properties in my area. I click on to two sites. The first is a blog talking about how to buy a home. The second has a giant database that allows me to search for homes in my area, look at their profiles and view pictures. This second site offers a much better user experience for what I am looking for on the web. Since I am more likely to sit on it for a longer period of time while looking at properties, the search engine engineers can correctly assume it is providing me with a better user experience and rank it higher than the blog.
Applying To Your Site
Okay, so how do you apply this lesson to your site? Putting together a large collection of content is certainly important, but I think there is more to it than just that these days. Personally, I incorporate video into my site as much as possible. I don’t make the videos. I just pull the ones I think are central to my subject off of YouTube. The advantage of this is visitors will stop to watch the videos, which keeps them on the site for a longer period of time than just written content. The fact the videos are high quality and informative just adds to their experience.
Is this the approach you should absolutely take for your site? It depends on the nature of your site. There is no right answer per se. Anything that keeps visitors on the site will do the trick.
