Last month we talked about the sophisticated algorithms that Google uses when determining search engine results and we mentioned Dwell Time. Dwell Time, as you know, is the amount of time a user spends on your website or webpage after clicking through from the search engine results.
Attracting users to your site is only one part of the equation, the goal is to find a way to keep the user engaged enough that they spend longer exploring your site. The average time a user spends on a site is around 30 seconds. In that time, they will scan your content and your images and if there is nothing their to hook their attention, leave. Top ranking sites on Google have a dwell time of over 3 minutes. So how can you compete with this?
One excellent way to encourage users to spend longer on your website is through embedded video content. Google now returns video content in more than 55% of search results so not only is it a good way to keep site visitors on your page, it is also a fantastic way to gain more exposure in search engine results in the first place!
Statistics show that users will spend 2 minutes longer on a website that has video content than those without, and if you are an eCommerce site with products, it’s time to start creating video content for your products as customers are 64% more likely to make a purchase if they have had the opportunity to view video content of the product first. (ASOS were way ahead of the game here and are an excellent example of product videos, not that we spend lots of time on their website, we promise!)
You may feel like you don’t know where to start when it comes to creating video content but one of the best places to start sharing is on YouTube. YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world after Google and processes over 3 billion searches every month which is more than Bing, Yahoo, AOL and Ask Jeeves combined. By uploading your content to YouTube you are opening it up to an audience that may then click on your video and visit your website as a result. Not only that you can embed video content from YouTube into your own website. That means YouTube will be hosting the content rather than you paying the additional hosting costs.
Video content can be as simple as creating short videos using your phone or a video camera or if you are looking for professionally produced video content that showcases the best of your business and services please contact us for a quote.