What Is Dwell Time on LinkedIn?
Dwell time is the amount of time a person spends looking at a piece of content. On LinkedIn it refers to time spent on a feed post, which LinkedIn starts measuring once at least half of the post is visible, and to time spent after clicking into the post or its link.
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Dwell time, explained
Dwell time is a behavioral signal that tells a ranking system whether people actually read something rather than just scrolled past it. LinkedIn's engineering team has written that it measures dwell time on the feed once at least half of a post is visible, and separately measures dwell time after a click. It uses predictions about dwell in feed ranking: a 2020 post described reducing a post's score in proportion to the predicted chance members skip it, and a 2024 post described treating predicted short dwell as a negative signal, with the aim of limiting click bait and "dwell bait". For writers, the lesson is not to pad posts. It is to make the opening honest about what follows and to deliver on it, so readers who stop do not leave quickly. Longer posts are not rewarded for length; posts that hold attention are.
Example
Two posts get the same number of likes, but readers stop and read the second one for longer because its first lines set up a real story that the body pays off. The second post is the one the feed is likely to show to more people.
In practice
Dwell time is one of many signals in the LinkedIn algorithm, and LinkedIn says its goal is time well spent rather than more time spent. The guide on why LinkedIn reach drops covers what to change when posts are being skipped.
Go deeper: Why did my LinkedIn reach drop?
Related terms
Sources
- Understanding dwell time to improve LinkedIn feed ranking, LinkedIn Engineering,
- Leveraging Dwell Time to Improve Member Experiences on the LinkedIn Feed, LinkedIn Engineering,