All you need to know about Google’s new ranking factor
Google has announced plans for a search algorithm update to be rolled out in 2021. The new ‘Page Experience’ ranking factor is made up of several metrics from Google’s new Core Web Vitals report data as well as metrics like mobile friendliness, web safety or interstitials. Check out our blog post to read all about Google’s new page experience update.
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Recognizing the difficulties many site owners are now facing from the effects of the Coronavirus Pandemic, Google will be announcing rollout of the new update at least six months ahead of launch. This should give SEOs, webmasters and online marketers enough time to come to grips with the new ranking factor and prepare their websites accordingly.
What will the new page experience entail?
This new ranking factor will combine a number of aspects to evaluate a user’s experience while they interact with a web page. Google intends to measure this focus on users and their perception of the browsing experience using a combination of its Core Web Vitals, security aspects (safe browsing and HTTPS) and mobile-friendliness. Read on to find out more about Google’s Core Web Vitals, which were recently launched in early May 2020.
The new page experience ranking factor coming to you in 2021 will feature the following elements:
- Load Speed (‘Largest Contentful Paint’ factor from Core Web Vitals)
- Responsiveness (‘First Input Delay’ from Core Web Vitals)
- Visual Layout Stability (‘Cumulative Layout Shift’ from Core Web Vitals)
- Mobile Friendly URL
- Safe and Clean Website Code (Safe Browsing with no Malware)
- Use of HTTPS Encryption
- No Intrusive Interstitial
Although page experience is not a completely new ranking factor, it now combines previous (official) ranking signals in a new, presumably more weighted factor in the search algorithm. And despite Google’s ranking factors supposedly being a closely guarded secret, on occasion they have been known to officially announce individual ranking factors – factors that have now found their way into the new page experience.
Mobile-friendliness,for instance, – memorably dubbed Mobilegeddon by the media – was officially announced as a ranking factor. As was HTTPS or mobile URL load times in the Mobile Speed Update.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Intended as core metrics for evaluating website performance, Google only introduced its Core Web Vitals at the beginning of May 2020. Over time, Google will be aligning this set of factors with technical requirements and user behaviour; which is why they can be modified and expanded accordingly. Google has said they plan to re-evaluate their Core Web Vitals every year.
Google’s Core Web Vitals originate from its Lighthouse audit framework – which webmasters and SEOs can use to perform detailed performance audits of any website or URL. Search metrics has analysed these parameters to assess what role they play in returning higher rankings. The findings of our analysis were used to develop our Google Lighthouse Ranking Factors. Click here to download the analysis free of charge:
The new page experience update will launch with the following three core elements from Google Lighthouse:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures the time it takes for the main content of a page to load. According to Google, LCP load times of up to 2.5 seconds are good, between 2.5 and 4 seconds need improvement, and anything longer than 4 seconds is poor.
First Input Delay (FID): This metric measures the amount of time that passes between the initial user interaction with the loaded page and the browser response. According to Google, an FID of up to 100 milliseconds is good, anything between 100 and 300 milliseconds needs improving, and anything upwards of 300 milliseconds is poor.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric measures the visual stability of a page when interacting. In other words, it indicates whether and to what extent unexpected layout changes take place while the user is interacting with a website, for example, when the position of a button changes suddenly and without scrolling. The lower the CLS, the better. For Google, anything up to 0.1 is good and anything higher than 0.25 is poor; everything in between means there is room for improvement.
Conclusion:
They’re introducing a new ranking factor to their algorithm, they usually give webmasters and SEOs time to prepare; this time it’s no different. So, you should seize the opportunity and use this time to test the individual factors of the new page experience signal on your own website. This is especially important for the new Core Web Vitals.
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