One way to improve SEO for your blog is to include… progress indicators!?
Here are some examples:
- A solid line, at the top of the page, that extends across the screen as the user scrolls down.
- Having a fixed or “sticky” Table of Contents highlighting each header as you reach it. This table also has internal anchor links that jump you to that header upon click.
- A persistent reading time, like 7 min read, that decreases as the reader advances.
So how does this benefit SEO?
Anything that improves the User Experience also helps SEO. Dwell Time, or how long a searcher visits a page before potentially returning to search results, is a ranking factor. Apple and Bing have stated this while Google has been quiet (at least officially).
Progress indicators may improve Dwell Time by reducing a large task into small ones, limiting cognitive overload while giving positive feedback.
Never assume that anything in SEO always works. With longform content, a progress indicator could lead to more clickbacks if the time commitment seems too great. Bounce rate is a good metric to measure while testing for these changes.
Yet, progress indicators should help your user through applied psychology, and therefore your SEO too, so are worth trying to improve your blog.