The question isn’t much time SHOULD someone spend on your website, but how much time DO they spend?
The answer is: a lot less than you think. Research shows the average time spent on a website is about 54 seconds.
Is that enough time for you to share what you offer your prospects? Probably not. That’s why you should engage your visitors in the first 5 seconds. (More on that later.)
Qualifying the 54-second statistic.
Time spent on a website depends on a lot of different things:
- On whether someone is on a mobile vs. a desktop.
- If they’re on a B2B or a B2C website.
- If they’re viewing a news site or the weather site.
- Whether someone’s visiting a site for a high-end service (like plastic surgery) or product (like a home builder site) vs. a site that sells hard drives.
Obviously, you want people to spend at least a minute on your website.
Ninety seconds would be amazing!
Think about how much time YOU spend on a website? Probably less than a minute. Mot likely only 30-40 seconds. Knowing the average visit to a website is only 54 seconds, does your website convey what you offer in that time? What about the 10 seconds someone will spend on your home page? Is it immediately obvious what benefit you offer your prospects?
How about your competitors websites? Do their websites make their benefits obvious in 5 seconds?
Yes, you have 5 seconds to get someone’s attention.
If you think your prospects want to learn something about your company, you’d be wrong. The consensus in the world of marketing is: prospects don’t care much about you (or us). Yet. They care about learning how what you do helps them. They want to know whatever you’re offering solves their problems.
So if your homepage isn’t showing the benefits you offer your audience in a few seconds, it’s time to update your website.
How much time do people spend on our website?
Here’s a screen shot from our Google Analytics. It shows the average time on our site is about 50 seconds. Of course, we’d like it to be more, but we know we’re all members of The Short Attention Span Society.
Time on website: why it’s so critical to engage a prospect.
The more you engage someone, the more they’ll see you as an expert in your industry, and the more trust you’ll build with them.
Time spent on your website (also called “Dwell time“), is a ranking factor for Google’s algorithms.
The more time someone spends on your website, the more “bonus points” Google’s (and other search engine’s) algorithms give your site. When someone spends time on your site, search engines’ algorithms know that. And search engine algorithms assume your content is interesting, meaning an educational, and informative website. And a website that search engines want to rank high in their search results, because if some people find it beneficial, others will as well.
The Nielson Norman Group, whose research focuses on user experience, summarizes it very well. They say
“Users often leave web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention for much longer. To gain several minutes of user attention, you must clearly communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds.”
How do you get someone’s attention in 10 seconds?
There’s no simple answer to this, but the factors we’ve found works for the websites we build, are:
- Make your message about your audience, not about you. No one cares about you (or us), they just want to know “What’s in it for me? How is this company going to make my life better, easier, make me look, or feel, better, or help me save money?” (Or something like that.)
- Your website should make you look more evolved and professional than your competitors’ websites. As we say: If you’re better than your competitors, shouldn’t your website be better than theirs?
- Tell that story in as few words as possible. Or better yet, images.
Two examples of showing your benefits with images.
For a produce distributor:
We developed a website for a produce company who didn’t know how to show what differentiated them. Together, we helped develop those points, came up with a way to showcase those benefits with headlines and images, then built their website around those messages. We took original photography – shown below – for their marketing and website.
For a home builder
For a home builder, we focused on what their audience enjoys in their new home. Between each section of the homepage, we had lifestyle images with benefits of what American Heritage Homes brings to the table. Below are screen shots showing the lifestyle images and benefits:
If you don’t know what to say about your company, how to say it, or how to show it, talk with a Columbus web design firm who has done it for others. And assuming you like what they’ve done, maybe they can help with your website and marketing message.