This is how Google has officially announced its upcoming page experience update.
“This past May, we announced that page experience signals would be included in Google Search ranking.”
It is a new algorithm by Google and is expected to launch in May 2021.
Given that it is an algorithm by Google, it is obvious to get curious what Google Page Experience update is all about.
Here is how Google defines it…
“These signals measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page and contribute to our ongoing work to ensure people get the most helpful and enjoyable experiences from the web.”
In other words, this upcoming update aims to determine the overall responsiveness and user experience of your website that appears in Google’s search results.
This update will also check the top ranking sites for any negative user experience. It simply means that user-friendly websites will rank higher than sites with poor user experience. Unarguably, this is going to be a big transformation in SEO.
With this metrics, the overall aim of Google is to ensure the users are getting safe, mobile-friendly, and straightforward browsing experience. For time being, page experience will cover only mobile search.
Understanding the Elements of Google Page Experience Metrics
Google Page Experience is said to be built upon the Core Web Vitals that was launched earlier this year.
Core Web Vitals are certain factors to determine webpage’s overall performance including, page speed and user’s interaction measurement.
Besides, Google prefer mobile friendly sites which can be justified due to the ever increasing number of smartphone users. If the site is not mobile optimized, it might miss on a lot of traffic.
Google also stresses the importance of safe browsing. And this is also one of the main elements of its Page Experience update. It means that a website that contains malicious or deceptive information might lose its ranking once the Page Experience update is rolled out.
Last but not least, Google might penalize the sites that intentionally keep the visitors away from quickly accessing the important info they need in the first place.
For example, a website might ask the user to subscribe their services first with pop-ups (that don’t go away unless you take the required action) before accessing the content or keep popping up while going through the content.
However, the algorithm won’t harm the ranking of the sites using disclaimers, age-sensitive content confirmation, cookie usage information and appropriately sized banners.
Who Can Become Winners or Losers with this Update?
By this point you must have a fair idea what Page Experience update is all about. It is clear that a website has to be responsive, safe and ensure a good user experience to get benefited from this update.
If your website has ticked all the boxes, you have good chances to rank even if you are not a brand or a popular domain.
The websites that are not user friendly and don’t live up to the expectations of the update might lose their ranking no matter how big brands they are.
How to Prepare for Google Page Experience Update?
- Optimize your website for mobile. After all, mobile responsiveness is one of the key objectives of Google page experience update.
- Incorporate security measures such as SSL certificate, firewall and removal of deceptive or malicious content from your site.
- Remove or tone down large pop up banners.
- Work over the loading speed of your website.
LAST NOTE
Page Experience update shouldn’t be intimidating.
If your website is user friendly and delivers a safe and seamless experience, consider this update as an opportunity to boost your ranking. Otherwise, it is a high time to work over the responsiveness and safety of your website to prevent the loss of ranking.
What do you think? Let me know by commenting below.
Started working as a digital marketing expert, Varun Sharma is now also a well-known digital marketing speaker – a speaker on performance development, and a trusted mentor to businesses in the digital world. His keynote expositions are based on the digital marketing theories, which provide a fascinating insight into the secrets of high performance.