View time: why Google kills boring sites

Last year Google was granted a patent describing the use of video watching time for ranking search results. Although the patent is directed at video content, the technology can be used by Google for regular documents with text, images or audio material, where there is no video. You can see further details on a diagram below (Fig 1):


The patent tells us that the ranking may be adjusted based on how long people are viewing video content, that they found through particular queries. Video rankings in the search results can be increased if users are watching it longer and and decreased if they spend little time watching it. It is worth noting that this is a factor that depends on the search criteria. Patent Reference is here


There was a lively discussion on the Internet where they discussed that the measure of the number of views was replaced with the viewing time: duration browsing sessions - ranking factor number one video.

YouTube provides some advices on optimization of viewing time:

Total viewing time of a movie is more important than how many people clicked on the video to view it. When users watch videos for a long time before they turn it off, it will begin to appear more frequently in similar and recommended videos.

Tips to improve the browsing time

• Google provided these tips for video, and adapted them for regular documents:
• Track user's residence time on the document.
• Try to understand how people interact with the content.
• Compare documents with each other. Find reasons for the success in the most valuable documents and edit the least popular.
• Hold the audience, become effective editor.
• Engage the reader. Title and introduction are the first thing that draws the visitor's attention.
• Use more media content and video reviews on pages.
• Encourage users to see additional content. Simplify your transition to other materials.
• Mention of readers in their articles and encourage comments, and interact with the audience.
• Regularly publish interesting articles to entice the visitor to read several documents at once.