In more detail
Dwell time captures how long a post holds someone's focus once it appears on their screen. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Pinterest use it as a quiet ranking signal, because a long dwell suggests the content was worth stopping for. It is different from watch time, which applies to video specifically, and from a simple impression, which only counts that a post was seen. A few extra seconds of dwell on a carousel or a long caption tells the algorithm your post earned real attention, which can push it to more feeds.
Example
If someone stops scrolling, reads your caption, and swipes through all five slides of a carousel before moving on, that might be 12 seconds of dwell time. A post they scroll past in under a second has almost none, even though both count as one impression.
FAQ
