Website designs look good. Check. Traffic looks good. Check. Google decides to change how it ranks to penalise poor page experiences. Oh no! From mid-June 2021, page experience impacts SEO and you need to act now.
Read on to discover what the problem is and how to safeguard your website against it.
What is page experience?
Page experience is a ranking factor in how Google’s search engine ranks a website. It takes page experience signals and uses that to decide on the quality of experience for a user. This is part of Google’s ongoing work to ensure that people get enjoyable and helpful experiences on the web. As a consequence, it means that Google search users get the best experience possible. Ultimately, the better the user experience, the more searches are performed on Google.
Why is Google changing its search algorithm?
Google is changing its search algorithm again because it believes in better user experiences online, particularly on mobile. Google started to prioritise results from its smartphone crawler in March 2020 and Google moved to mobile-first indexing for all websites in September 2020. It doesn’t ignore its desktop crawler but it has less priority and crawls less often. From June 2021, Google announced that additional page experience signals are included in Google search ranking. These will prioritise results for speed, visual stability and interactivity.
Why do I need to act now on page experience?
As a result of mobile-first indexing, this means that mobile page speed, visual stability and interactivity are priorities for web designers. Not all websites are truly ‘mobile ready’. Many websites are complex with lots of graphics. Some web hosting struggles during busy times. Website design does not always take into account visual stability on mobile. If you don’t act now, your SEO performance may suffer and you appear further down the page. Worst case, you will cede some of your SERPs (Search Engine Ranking Positions) simply because of user experience on mobile. In summary, page experience impacts SEO.
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How do I improve my page experience?
Firstly, think about page loading speed, which Google measures as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). This is the time taken to load the largest element on a web page. It sounds obvious, but lower bandwidth and less processing power on smartphones and mobile devices means that page speed matters. The typical webpage weighs in at between 2.0-3.5 megabytes. With mobile traffic overtaking desktop in 2020, the size and speed of a page matters for user experience.
Secondly, visual stability makes a huge difference on mobile, specifically for touchscreens. Ever had a time when the page was loading, you are about to click and then the button or link moves? This is known as Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) and it is one of a number of factors that influences user experience (UX). This is one item we can see quite easily when loading a page so check if things seem to ‘jump around’ when loading a web page.
Thirdly, First Input Delay (FID) is a function of speed and page loading and it tells you when a page is ready to accept input. A web page with lots of features can take a while from the point you access it to when the browser is able to respond to your interaction. Once the loading has calmed down, the browser is able to work on whatever you have asked it to process. In summary, if you tried to interact with a page and it takes a while to respond, maybe the page needs simplifying.
How do I fix my website before page experience impacts SEO?
All web pages have undergone some design and development in getting them from concept to deployment. Some websites are hosted on fast servers but still have poor page experience. Some websites have optimisations to improve experience but are hosted on slow servers.
Here are 6 simple things to consider to make sure that page experience does not impact SEO:
- Choose a lightweight theme
- Optimise your website code
- Minimise file sizes
- Fix any Cumulative Layout Shift issues
- Consider server-side options
- Evaluate mobile-first solutions
In general, most of the changes require a web developer or experienced web designer. Mobile-first solutions are not suitable for everyone as there is often duplication of your existing infrastructure.
Digital marketing services help you to act now on SEO
We offer a range of digital services to boost your online performance. SEO is much more than just page experience. That is why we offer to boost your organic rankings and also help you with content. Now that Google has announced a slight delay, you still have time to react to the page experience update. In conclusion, we are a consultancy that also offers digital agency services for online visibility.
If you would like to find out more, please call us on 01565 632206.
Alternatively, drop us an email at sales@think-beyond.co.uk or take 30-seconds to fill-in your details and we will call you.
Finally, why not check out our latest thoughts on developments in digital in our blog.