How long do people spend reading online content? It’s great that Google might reward a long-form post, but will anyone read the whole thing? The data here is mixed.
About 74% of a person’s viewing time is spent on the first two screenfuls of content. According to Nielsen, only 14% of viewing time is spent past three screens. Meanwhile, Chartbeat shows that more than half of visitors spend less than 15 seconds on a page. On the other hand, Medium posts, which take 7.8 minutes to read, are the most popular. Each is about 2,000 words. On average, adults read about 250 words per minute, so 7.8 minutes equals roughly 1,950 words.
