Back in May 2020, Google published an article titled “Evaluating page experience for a better web,” where it announced its plans to roll out a major update to its algorithm in 2021.
Google claimed, “Through both industry research and international studies, users show that they prefer websites with great page experiences. In recent years, Google search has added a variety of user experience criteria, like mobile-friendliness and how quickly pages load, as factors for ranking results. Earlier this month, our team announced ‘Core Web Vitals,’ a set of metrics that is related to responsiveness, speed, and visual stability, allowing the owners to measure their user experience on the web.”
Adding to it, “We’ll now be building on this work and rolling out a search engine ranking change that incorporates the page experience metrics. Soon, we’ll be introducing a signal which combines the Core Web Vitals with our already-existing signals for page experience.”
In other words, you need to ensure that your website delivers the best possible experience. Google has always been focused on delivering the most relevant results to its users. And they want to make sure that the websites delivering great experiences are ranked at the top.
This brings us to the question:
“Which websites does Google consider should rank at the top?”
Maybe the mobile-friendly ones, or is it the ones with the best backlinks?
Up until now, Google has relied on numerous factors to determine a website’s search engine rankings. And in recent years, Google has rolled out numerous both minor and major updates to its algorithm.
This time, Google, in its latest article on the subject titled “Understanding page experience in Google Search results,” revealed that page experience will be joining hundreds of other signals that Google takes into consideration for determining search engine rankings.
As claimed by them, “Google still prefers ranking the pages with the most relevant information, even though the page experience is subpar. Great page experiences won’t override great page content. However, there exist countless pages that are similar in relevance. So, in that case, page experience will help determine the rankings much efficiently.”
Google even listed out the signals responsible for delivering an outstanding page experience, which you may look at here:
So, before this algorithm update rolls out, which changes should you be making?
Following are some tips to consider:
- Optimize Your Website Speed: Your website page loading time shouldn’t be more than 3 seconds. If your website pages take more than that, it leads to a poor experience. Hence, you need to make sure that your website loading time is not more than 3 seconds.
- Carry Out Competitors’ Analysis & Compare Your Experience with Theirs: Obviously, your competitors are trying to gain the #1 position like you for the same set of keywords. You’re in direct competition with them. So, the next step is to prepare a list of your competitors and heading over to your website, and carrying out a thorough analysis. You may use tools like Ubersuggest or SemRush to gain better insights into their user experience.
- Mobile-Friendly: With people spending more and more time on their mobile devices these days, it’s critical to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly and responsive.
- Safety: Your website shouldn’t contain deceptive or malicious content.
- Secure: You need to make sure that your website is served over HTTPS. Google will send its users to a website with a secure connection. So, if your website connection isn’t secure, your search engine rankings will be negatively impacted.
- Analyze Your Design: Not only should your website be sleek and elegant, but it should be easily navigable. On top of this, make sure that it’s fully functioning and delivers the best possible experience to your audience.
Conclusion
Google is just getting started.
In the next few years, the tech giant has been predicted to focus on the user experience heavily and will roll out various such algorithm updates, helping them ensure that they are delivering the most relevant results and an outstanding customer experience.
Google doesn’t usually announce its plans way ahead of time; however, this time, the company has, which is nice.
The opportunity is standing right in front of you. So, make sure that you are fixing any usability issues that your website has.
And if you need help, contact our experts at Red Fox Visual. We are a part of the leading web design and development agency in Boise and have helped numerous clients step up.
