Page experience to become a Google ranking factor in 2021: Here’s all you need to know
On May 28th 2020, Google announced that page experience would become a new ranking signal which can be expected to go live sometime in 2021. The new ranking algorithm is designed to evaluate web pages based on how users interact with them.
The new ‘Page Experience’ ranking factor is made up of several metrics from Google’s new Core Web Vitals such as report data and other ranking factors such as mobile friendliness, web safety and interstitials.
The page experience ranking factor will affect the ranking of the page if users have a poor experience on your pages, such as such as whether the page loads quickly, if it’s mobile-friendly, runs on HTTPS, the presence of intrusive ads and if content jumps around as the page loads.
Page Experience
In Google’s own words, it means…
“The page experience signal measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page. Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile. We believe this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction.”
What does new page experience comprise of?
The new page experience ranking factor will feature the following elements:
- Google’s New Core Web Vitals (also determined during Google Page Load Speed Test):
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- Load Speed (‘Largest Contentful Paint’ factor)
- Responsiveness (‘First Input Delay’)
- Visual Layout Stability (‘Cumulative Layout Shift’)
- Mobile Friendly URL
- Safe and Clean Website Code (Safe Browsing with no Malware)
- Use of HTTPS Encryption
- No Intrusive Interstitials
- AMP pages to compete with other pages for top stories section
The infographic from Google shows how it evaluates web performance of a web page:
Page experience is not a completely new ranking factor however as mobile first indexing and quick page loading speed have been ranking signals for some time.
Why is this update so important?
User intent and experience have always been key factors for Google’s ranking signals and algorithms. This has been demonstrated by previous search updates, such as BERT (2018) and RankBrain (2015) where Google used these models to understand search queries and user search intent. BERT utilised natural language processing and machine learning techniques to understand the intent behind search queries. However, RankBrain was AI based technique to understand user search queries and measure how people interact with the search results. KPIs for successes were organic CTR, average time on page and bounce rate. This shows that Google continually evolves its ranking algorithm to align it with the best user experience and user search intent.
So how do you optimise your user experience?
- Content still is the top ranking factor for page to rank well
Google suggests …
“While all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.”
- Optimise your speed and reduce errors
The faster your website loads, the better experience you’ll provide. Ensure there are no broken pages as this creates a poor experience for users. The faster your site loads the better. The optimum website page load time for both desktop and mobile should be under 2 seconds.
- Compare your website’s experience to your competition
You may think you have an amazing user experience, but how does it stand up to your competition? The Ahrefs tool helps to identify top ranking competitors and the areas where competition is doing better.
- Analyse your site design
Identify usability issues in your website’s design with the help of online tools such as heatmaps and test user engagement on the web page.
How big this update will be?
The impact of this update is not known as yet however historical updates have impacted queries between 10% and 12% (Source: Search Engine Land – Panta’s initial release impacted 11.8% of all queries and BERT impacted 10% of queries).
It’s expected that Google will roll out the Page Experience update in March 2021. This gives clients and us a few months to test and prepare our websites based on the published criteria and focus on any gaps or troublesome areas.
Page Experience Optimisation – tips and quick wins to ensure your website continues ranks well when this update rolls out
The most important element to optimise page experience is through providing a range of useful content. This can be achieved via:
- informative long-form content
- using images & videos to engage users
and/or
- optimising content with keywords based on “user intent”
Online content consumption can also be effectively improved through a “test and learn” approach which helps to identify content, images or calls to actions that get more traction from the users.
Secondly, it is important to utilise insights gleaned from the analytics tools to enhance the user journey and provide great user experience.
Last but not the least, it is critical to fix what is broken by proactively amending broken links and enabling new pages to be crawled and indexed so that a seamless user experience can be achieved.
