With the bounce or exit rate, page views, and average session duration, you are able to calculate the engagement users have on your website. Along with these, you should measure the average time on page, which is the total time a visitor spent on a specific page.
Here's everything you need to know about this metric.
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Templates using this KPI
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Integrations using this KPI
Average time on page is a web analytics metric that calculates the average amount of time users spent on a specific page. Each individual page has its own average time on page, but you can check your session duration to calculate how long a visitor spends on the whole website.
This does not consider exit pages or bounces, and only measures the average time spent by users on non-exit pages.
The average time on page is calculated as the total time on page, divided by the total number of web page views minus the number of exits.
You will need a Google Analytics account. To check your average time on page in Google Analytics, navigate to the Behavior overview under reports. You will find a few metrics that relate to the engagement of your users.
There is no benchmark, it depends on your industry, device type, target audience, and many more factors. The best practice is to track your Average Time on Page and compare it every month.
Since there isn't a benchmark and it's pretty hard to compare yourself to competitors, you need to measure it monthly. If you notice a drop, you might want to do something about it.
Your avg time on page can be added to multiple different types of reports. Here are some of them:
Google analytics report template
A report with all the most important Google analytics metrics. Track all your web analytics, from single-page metrics, page load time, organic searches, total number of sessions, and more.
Digital marketing report template
From SEO to social media and PPC, this report gives you a good view of all online performance metrics. Get insights on user experience and figure out your digital marketing next steps.
Ecommerce report template
A report with all the most important metrics for your eCommerce website, like bounce rate, shopping cart abandonment, and total revenue. Optimize your product pages to get better results in your report!
In order to get user sessions as high as possible, here are some of the best practices you should keep in mind while optimizing your website's average time on page.
Shine on the SERP
For people to stay longer on a particular page, it all starts on the search engine result page. Write a compelling meta description for users to truly understand what this page will be about. The ranking factor is actually important because Google uses relevancy for its algorithm, so ranking high in the result can help with the time a visitor will spend on a page before exiting.
Content marketing is king
Once your visitor is on your website, your goal is to keep them as long as possible. That's why you need to optimize your site's content. You can optimize headings, play with pop-ups, add white space to let your page breathe, and make sure your potential customers land on a page that has the best possible probability to convert them. And lastly, don't neglect the importance of your landing pages.
Include compelling CTA's
Optimization of your content includes compelling CTA to get visitors engaged on your website and incite them to continue their journey onto the next page. Having a page that drives a lot of user exits is a good indication that you should put some energy into better converting your users.
Although average time on page is widely used, there are multiple synonyms that can be used. Here are a few:
Avg. time on page, Avg time on page, Time on page, Time spent on page, GA avg time on page
Conversion Rate
Customer lifetime value (CLV)
Customer acquisition cost (CAC)
Cost per acquisition (CPA)
Backlinks
Cost per lead (CPL)
Domain authority
Domain rating
Unique visitor
Return on marketing investment
Bounce rate
Pageviews
Traffic sources
Keyword Difficulty
Return on ad spend
Referring domains
