A new Google ranking factor called Google Page Experience started rolling out on June 15, calling for a site-wide audit and a more user-focused approach to search engine optimization (SEO) and web design and development. Page Experience won’t start playing its full role as part of the search engine’s ranking signals until the end of August. In an announcement, Google said,
“You can think of it as if you’re adding a flavoring to a food you’re preparing. Rather than add the flavor all at once into the mix, we’ll be slowly adding it all over this time period.”
If you haven’t started optimizing your website for the Google Page Experience Guide, you’re already behind the competition – many of whom have spent several months preparing for this new Google update.
In November 2020, Google confirmed that it would start factoring website user experience (UX) into Google Search. As a new Google ranking factor, the Google Page Experience Update is incorporating Core Web Vitals with existing user experience Google signals – including mobile-friendliness, HTTPS and no intrusive interstitials – to determine a web page’s Google usability, interactivity and Search ranking.
However, on Aug. 3, 2021, Google announced that it was dropping Safe Browsing as a page experience ranking signal, saying that it considers safe browsing to be outside of a website owner’s control. As part of Google’s announcement, it said:
“Sometimes sites fall victim to third-party hijacking, which can cause Safe Browsing warnings to be surfaced. We recognize that these issues aren’t always within the control of site owners, which is why we’re clarifying that Safe Browsing isn’t used as a ranking signal and won’t feature in the Page Experience report.”
Google will continue to flag safe browsing issues in Google Search Console (GSC), but it will no longer be included in the Page Experience report.
If you haven’t yet prepared, now is the time to do it: The overall optimization process for all the Google Page Experience ranking signals could take 15-40 days or more, depending on your site issues and the number of pages you are updating. Additionally, it often requires a 28-day turnaround to see the impact of the changes made in the process. According to the latest Page Experience update, you can expect any ranking changes to take effect on the second Tuesday of every month.
A study by Screaming Frog found that, as of August 2020, less than 15 percent of websites meet the Google Page Experience Guide benchmarks. In June this year, Searchmetrics released new data revealing that less than 4 percent of websites can successfully pass the Core Web Vitals tests.
With a small percentage of websites able to pass the Google Core Web Vitals and Google Page Experience assessment, now’s the time to rethink your technical SEO efforts and push for a responsive website design that serves users with a high-quality Google user experience.
Prioritize your website user experience for a more customer-centric approach to SEO. Do what it takes to make the most of the Google Page Experience Update and ramp up your Google web rating, traffic, leads and conversions!
Google Page Experience Signal and SEO
Is your website stuck on the second, third or fourth page of search engine results pages (SERPs) despite your on-page SEO efforts? Your website user experience may be the problem.
Google has made its mission clear to make information universally accessible and provide online users with a high-quality on-page experience. And for a while now, Google has been using several search engine ranking signals, such as click-through rate (CTR), dwell time and bounce rate, to better rank web pages.
After reaching peak traffic and searches from mobile devices, Google made website user experience even more important. In May 2020, Google announced a new Google update that will combine Core Web Vitals and previous UX-related search signals to provide a clear picture of a page’s user experience and determine issues that hinder online users from accessing a wealth of quality information on the web.
Google has identified six core ranking signals that will be part of this update:
- Largest Contentful paint (LCP)
- Mobile Friendly
- Cumulative layout shift (CLS)
- First Input Delay (FID)
- HTTPS
Each core ranking signal must be adopted and implemented to ensure a website gets crawled and indexed by Google and gains better rankings on the SERPs.
Google defines page experience as:
“… a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value.”
It’s evident user experience is becoming a core measure of page quality and a significant variable in determining Google page ranking. This means besides creating quality and accessible content, technical SEO experts should also:
These Google user experience best practices enable web developers and technical SEO professionals to create a meaningful website user experience and easily define user journeys that contribute to online success.
With Google’s latest update having rolled out, the new Page Experience ranking signals join the hundreds of Google ranking factors that search engines use to rank and generate relevant search results to user queries. As such, it is imperative to fully comprehend what is Google update Core Web Vitals and their impact on SEO.
How Big of an Update Will the Google Page Experience Be?
In a fashion atypical of Google, we were given a one-year warning for the Page Experience Update. The year-long timeframe shows how big an impact this Google algorithm update will have on your technical SEO and responsive web design efforts, SERPs rankings and, ultimately, your online revenue.
Experts agree that being ill-prepared for the Google latest update could mean a 100 percent drop in website rankings and a significant decrease in traffic and conversions.
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