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Google's
Page Experience algorithm update hasn't rolled out yet. But it will in
May 2021. So, what's the Page Experience update and how can you prepare for
it? Check out a great article on
Search Engine Land for everything that you need to know (for now).
What To Evaluate Ahead Of Google's Page
Experience Update
The content you're competing against, the AMP
option, your organization's resources and business requirements are all part
of the decision.
Google unveiled the
Page Experience update in May, coupling that announcement with a new set
of metrics called
Core Web Vitals and laying out its plan to
remove the AMP restriction on its Top Stories carousel. Last week, the
company revealed that the page experience signals in ranking will
go live in May 2021.
With roughly six months remaining before the impact manifests in the search
results, marketers may think that there's plenty of time to prepare in the
new year. However, there are many considerations to evaluate and
conversations to have with stakeholders before the work can even begin.
Here's what you need to start thinking about now so that your site is
prepared when the update rolls out.
The page experience update's impact on and
off the search results page
In the search results. "It's not going to be a major change, but you
shouldn't ignore it either," said Pedro Dias, head of SEO at British
publisher Reach PLC and former search quality analyst at Google. Many of the
page experience criteria, such as
mobile-friendliness,
HTTPS, the presence of
intrusive interstitials,
page speed and
browsing safety are already Google search ranking factors, meaning that
sites should already be optimizing with those aspects in mind.
If you're not familiar with the Core Web Vitals, the performance metrics
–Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative
Layout Shift (CLS) -- that Google is incorporating as ranking signals in the
Page Experience update, see our
Guide to Core Web Vitals for SEOs and Developers.
"Cumulative Layout Shift, First Input Delay, and load performance are
important to your site and to your user," said Matt Dorville, SEO manager at
BuzzFeed, "but they don't replace core priorities like the user's search
intent and the quality of the content." This sentiment was also shared by
Dias, who said, "Google likely will never sacrifice quality and relevancy
over other technical aspects."
This concern was addressed in Google's initial page experience
announcement in May, and Rudy Galfi, a product manager for the company,
confirmed to Search Engine Land that great content can still rank highly in
Google search,
even with a poor page experience.
However, as quality content has become more ubiquitous, a technical
advantage may be a deciding factor in the rankings with this update.
In the day-to-day for SEOs. In addition to its potential impact on
the search results, the page experience update may also affect the way SEOs
approach optimization by providing them with a set of quantitative metrics
to strive for.
"When it comes to improving page experience, SEO's have stumbled their way
through interpreting Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines while never really
understanding their prominence in ranking," said Kim Dewe, head of SEO at
UK-based agency Blue Array.
The page experience update may also speak to the evolving nature of SEO as a
profession. "It does continue the trend that SEOs are going to have to get
more technical (if they aren't already) to be able to talk to engineers as
they troubleshoot solutions relating to speed, JavaScript rendering and ways
to prioritize what Google is asking for in relation to other priorities that
the business has," Dorville said.
Why you need to start planning and
evaluating the tradeoffs now
While the update is still half a year away from launching and may take a
while to roll out fully, that time cannot be taken for granted. "All these
improvements are cumulative, and many take time to deploy and get processed
by Google," Dias said, "It's something where you want to be as prepared as
possible -- much like the
Google mobile-first index change, I wouldn't recommend leaving the Core
Web Vitals for the last minute."
To continue
reading the article, please
click here.
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us.
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