Once you understand the importance of optimizing your page views and attracting site visitors, there is another site performance metric that you should consider: time on page. According to survey results from Brafton, the average time on page for 181 sites surveyed was 2 minutes and 17 seconds.

Similar to a bounce rate (the percentage of visitors who leave your site after viewing only one page), the amount of time that a visitor spends on one of your pages can be an indicator of false leads — visitors who land on your site, only to realize that it’s not what they were looking for and leave immediately. A bounce rate tells you when a visitor has viewed only a single page on your site. Time on page, however, gives you insight into how well your content is actually performing.

Let’s take a closer look at time on page to learn how it works, and what information this metric can disclose about your site performance.