How Will Your Website Rank in Google’s Page Experience Update?
May 2021, Google’s algorithm changed to highlight search results that provide a good page experience. Google says their new page experience signals will “measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page and contribute to our ongoing work to ensure people get the most helpful and enjoyable experiences from the web.”
What does this mean for your website’s rank? We interviewed Triton Commerce Chief Design Officer Nick Kelly and Creative Manager/Web Designer Jace Bresina to find out how the Google Page Experience update will affect a website’s rank in the search results.
What's Happening With Google?
Jace:
For the last six years or so, the web world has been pushing the importance of having responsive and mobile-friendly websites. With the updates Google will be implementing, the user experience on mobile will have a higher priority, meaning user experience will be evaluated for a website’s ranking in search results. This is ultimately due to the high volume of users that access the web through mobile devices compared to desktops or laptops nowadays.
Is Google's Page Experience update a big deal?
Nick:
It’s rare that Google warns business owners of an upcoming update to their algorithm, and when they do, it usually means the update is a big deal. That’s exactly what they’ve done with the announced May 2021 Page Experience Update, and we believe this could have significant ramifications for the companies that don’t prepare for it.
How Do I Know If My Website Provides A Good User Experience?
Nick:
Some page experience signals already factor into your ranking. Things like mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, and HTTPS. But with this new update, Google will be incorporating what they call their Core Web Vitals. The point of these metrics is to make sure that the sites Google is sending traffic to aren’t providing a bad user experience. Things like poor load time, slow interactivity and layouts that shift while using it could now negatively affect your sites performance in Google’s search results.
Jace:
Google will be pushing websites to do more than just have a responsive website; It's time to make sure it's clean, fast, and highly functional, with a great UX design for its users.
What Do Businesses Need To Know?
Nick:
Unfortunately, fixing these issues within your site could prove difficult, as solutions can be complex for even technically savvy individuals. And while we don’t know exactly how severe the rankings impact will be for sites with low Core Web Vital scores, we highly recommend not taking a chance and either tackling it yourself or reaching out to a professional before the May update.
Jace:
The biggest thing I think business owners need to know about their websites, especially with all of these changes, is that their website is meant for prospective buyers and/or clients – not necessarily to display anything and everything they may want on their website. Years ago that wasn't an issue, a company could have huge beautiful pictures, tons of cool widgets and gadgets, but today, many of those things aren't considered part of a good UX anymore, and they basically cause more harm to your web scores than good.
Moral of the story: Make sure your website is designed and developed with best practices, doesn't utilize a whole bunch of third-party scripts/plugins, and you should have good scores for your mobile AND desktop UX.
Want some help to make sure your website ranks well in Google? Contact Triton Commerce today for Search Engine Optimization solutions that drive real results for businesses.