Dwell time is the duration a viewer's screen displays a post before scrolling past. LinkedIn treats it as a quality signal: a longer dwell suggests the reader actually consumed the content rather than scrolling past indifferently. Dwell time is heavily influenced by post length (longer posts naturally take longer to read), preview-text strength (a strong hook earns the click to expand), and visual elements like carousels (which require manual paging). The signal is stronger than likes for early-feed ranking because it is harder to game. Posts that earn dwell time through genuine substance tend to keep getting distributed even after the initial like activity dies down.
Examples
- A 1,200-word essay that holds a reader for 90 seconds outperforms a 2-line post that earns a quick like.
- A carousel where each slide builds on the last keeps a reader on-post longer.
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Frequently asked questions
Related terms
LinkedIn algorithm
The ranking system LinkedIn uses to decide which posts appear in which users' feeds.
Impressions
One display of a post in a LinkedIn user's feed. The starting metric for every engagement funnel.
Reach
The number of unique LinkedIn users who saw a post at least once. Reach less than impressions implies repeat views.
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