Dwell Time
Dwell Time refers to how long users spend on a page before going back to search results, though Google says this metric doesn't directly affect rankings. The term became popular in SEO talks as a way to describe user behavior, but it's more industry slang than a real ranking factor. Many SEO pros use "dwell time" to discuss user actions rather than a pure elapsed time.
Google does track user activities and interactions on websites through various signals, but not the simple time-on-page metric that "dwell time" suggests. Real User Signals include clicks, scrolling, and engagement actions rather than passive time tracking. These patterns differ from Bounce Rate and Pogosticking, which also involve specific user actions rather than time duration.
Smart SEO providers know that user engagement matters more than time spent on a page. Better content quality, page speed, and User Intent Matching creates good user experiences that naturally lead to positive engagement signals.