Since 2007, the age of cell phones with apps, our attention span has been getting shorter as we are continuously bombarded with content distractions.
Moreover, the increasing concern for social validation and the number of likes or comments on a post adds to this problem. As a result, humans now have an average attention span of 8 seconds, even less than a goldfish’s 9 seconds.
This does not mean that humans cannot focus on one thing for more than 8 seconds. It simply means that our brains are conditioned to wander and can’t focus on one single item, like looking into someone’s eyes for more than 9 seconds without blinking.
So, what does it mean for your website to pass the ‘Goldfish’ test? Google calls it the ‘Bounce Rate.’ The Bounce Rate is the time a website visitor spends on a page or website without engaging with your content or leaving your site. If your website’s Bounce Rate is high, it usually means that your website’s content or user experience does not align with the searcher’s intent.
Our goal as Marketers is to have someone not just visit your website but engage with your products or service.
Here is some additional information:
- “Users often leave Web pages in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people’s attention for much longer. To gain several minutes of user attention, you must clearly communicate your value proposition within 10 seconds.” Nielsen Norman Group Note: This study was done back in 2011, just imagine how much our attention span has declined since then.
- How Google values ‘Bounce Rate‘
- If you made it this far, congratulations, you are better than a Goldfish.
