Understanding Google Page Experience Algorithm

Here are some top changes that may affect page ranking.

A year ago Google has announced that they are going to roll out a new algorithm called page experience. In mid-June 2021 it is set to roll out.

Will this effects SEO?

Yes, of course, In simple terms Google is going to measure how users will interact with the web pages. 

Google will measure with their existing search signals such as safe-browsing, HTTPS, mobile-friendly, and intrusive interstitial. Apart from these signals, Google will also measure core web vitals these metrics will measure the stability, interactivity, and loading performance of the web pages.

If you haven’t prepared for it, then it’s time to do it.

So let’s understand what are these page experience signals are- 

Mobile-friendly: Google measures if your website is mobile-friendly or not.

A mobile-friendly website is a site that is optimized for mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, or iPads. Text, images, and graphics are all set properly such as the user doesn’t have to manually adjust the settings. Easy to navigate, and easy functionality. 

With a growing number of mobile users, this is an important factor in search ranking.

Check if your website is mobile-friendly or not. Test now in google tool.

Safe-browsing: It is a backlist service that provides information about a website containing phishing content and malware. Browsers use this information to warn users for safe browsing. You can check this with tools to determine if your website has any security issues.

HTTPS: HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a protocol that provides information about the website and has a proper secure connection. This is important when it comes to websites like banking and e-commerce. This also tells users that the information they share with the website is encrypted. Google gives top priority to security measures and also a ranking boost. 

Intrusive interstitial: In Layman’s terms, if mobile users visit your website from Google search for the query they are looking for instead of that they find pop-ups, or layout covering the main content, this fall under Intrusive interstitial. This provides a bad user experience and it affects the ranking signals. 

Introducing core web vitals:

Core web vitals or simply web vitals are Google metrics that measure stability, loading performance,  and interactivity of users’ experience. These are real-world user experience data that Google is including in the upcoming updates.

This will be a ranking factor apart from the above-mentioned page experience signals. 

The current web vitals matrics consist of the following – 

1] Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

2] First Input Delay (FID)

3] Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):

This measures the performance of a website.

LCP measures the largest element, text, or image in the viewport that gets visible.

Google says is that LCP should not be greater than 2.5 Seconds.

The common cause of slow LCP might be – Server response time, render-blocking JS and CSS, resource load time, or client-side rendering.

First Input Delay (FID):

It is a time when the user interacts with a web page say for example when they click a link or tab a button.

It is time your browsers respond to your requests.

This is measured in milliseconds.

Google suggests that FID should be less than 100 milliseconds

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):

It is an unexpected movement of the web pages.

Layout shift is a visible element that can highly impact user experience.

This CLS can occur due to – images without dimensions, ads, embeds, iframes, animations, server loading.

User experience is an important factor, and Google will give priority to those websites that provide a great user experience. So we avoid these website design mistakes and improve the site for your users. 

Here’s a great article that shows website design mistakes that should be avoided for better SEO. Read this article here.

All these signals should be monitored and optimized for better performance in ranking. 

There are various tools that can be used to check all the performance reports of the website. 

In the long run, these changes will be vital for the website and ranking.

Author Bio:

I am Mark Twain, a passionate and experienced content writer in the USA, helping people enhance their online presence, website rankings in the SERP and attract more unique visitors by creating fresh, unique & quality content.