Image Alt

What Google’s Page Experience Update Means for Your SEO

What Google’s Page Experience Update Means for Your SEO

Last November, Google announced their newest update – the “page experience update” – designed to help highlight pages that offer optimized user experiences, further impacting search engine optimization (SEO) and how websites are ranked on the search engine. As with every update, but most importantly with Google Updates, there are necessary refinements and updates your website will need in order to keep your website position and traffic rate intact.  

Not sure where to start? Let’s break it down.  

According to Google, page experience is the combination of performance signals that quantifies a users’ experience while interacting with a webpage. What once just included the quality of information present on the page now includes the visual appearance, interactivity, and loading speed.  

The bottom line: page experience tells Google how pleasant or painful your website was for a visitor.  

This ranking system created by Google is called the Page Experience Signal. The system uses multiple factors to help establish a webpage’s overall experience and uses these values to rank the webpage accordingly. Based on the ranking and the user’s search query, Google uses this ranking to display the best content.  

Core Web Vitals, Google’s new set criteria, includes new factors such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These new web vitals will work alongside the existing search singles to help rank websites.  

Illustration of how the Core Web Vitals work alongside the existing search singles to identify and rank page experiences. 
Image Source: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2020/11/timing-for-page-experience 

LCP measures loading performance.  

  • This is often measured by the load time of the largest block of text or image visible within the viewer’s screen.  
  • Good user experience = LCP within the first 2.5 seconds 

FID measures inactivity and responsiveness.  

  • This is often measured by the first impression users have of how fast a website can load after their first interaction (clicks on link, selects button, etc.).  
  • Good score = FID of less than 100 milliseconds. 

CLS measures visual stability.  

  • CLS measures the largest burst of unexpected layout shifts throughout the page. Layout shifts occur when a visible element or session window – moves rapidly, effecting the overall layout and functionality of the website.  
  • Good user experience = CLS score of less than 0.1. 

Google’s Search Console has a new feature available to report Core Web Vitals. It will offer a snapshot of how your site is currently performing and will also identify any pages that should be improved.  

Google Search Console dashboard reflecting page experience update analytics, including good URLs 
Image Source: https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2021/04/more-details-page-experience  

In addition to the new Core Web Vitals, remember to ensure your website is mobile-friendly, frequently check for security issues, confirm your site’s connection is secure, and ensure there are no pesky pop-ups inhibiting users from being dismissed easily.  

Not sure whether your website will be impacted by the new update? Not sure how to optimize your website or improve your SEO? We’ve got you covered. Claim your FREE Basic SEO Report to learn what’s going right, what’s going wrong, and what kind of improvements could be made to make your site more search engine and user-friendly.