When looking at Google’s vast array of ranking factors, it’s clear to see how most of them relate to a single question: user experience.
The search engine team has been clear on its goal to deliver the best content available to its audience. But it has emphasized, especially a guide over recent years, that where this information is found should receive the same attention.
Page experience matches most modern marketing theories that identify consumer experience as central to a strategy.
In this article, we will analyze this topic in detail. You will understand:
- What is page experience?
- Why should I care about this new this goal directs focus towards ranking factor?
- What changes for the user?
- How does this update affect SEO?
- What are Core Web Vitals?
- What tools can analyze these metrics?
- How to improve my Core Web Vitals?
- What practices contribute to page experience?
Find the answers to these questions below!
What is page experience?
Page experience is a ranking factor that a guide gathers metrics focused on the responsiveness, interactivity, security, and speed of sites.
Its objective is to guarantee users’ satisfaction with web pages, independent of their content.
However, we should not confuse this factor with the “landing page experience”. It’s a metric Google Ads uses to estimate the relevance of pages georgia phone number data concerning the sponsored ads created for them.
With this update, Google reaffirms its commitment to improving the web for everyone, avoiding negative situations such as annoying pop-ups or unwanted clicks.
Take a look at the example below where the user sms to data wants to click “No, go back”, but ends up accidentally selecting the first option due to an unexpected pop-up that repositions the buttons.
This new factor is scheduled to be introduced in 2021, as companies are currently focusing their efforts on dealing with the impacts of the Coronavirus crisis.
Google has also promised to give at least 6 months’ notice of the specific date on which the update will go into effect.
The update also brings about changes to a guide the Top Stories feature on mobile devices, which will no longer have AMP technology as an eligibility requirement. There will also be news for its suite of Digital Marketing tools.
Why should I care about this new ranking factor?
SEO professionals know that the field gathers a huge amount of official information, but it is also full of hypotheses, hunches, and guesstimates.
For marketing and strategic reasons, Google does not reveal the details of its ranking process, which forces companies and professionals to test their own theories.
Many turn out to be true, but these discoveries pale compared to the speed of search engine updates. For example, in 2018 alone, Google’s algorithm received 3234 updates!
Many changes may lead to a site instantly gaining or losing ranking positions.
However, despite most changes silently going into effect, some updates bring about so many implications for the web that Google is essentially duty-bound to announce them.
This is the case with the mobile-first index and, more recently, page experience.
With the worldwide explosion of mobile devices, the internet has taken on a new format that search engines need to keep in mind.
Smartphones are already the principal method of accessing information. That is why Google considers it so important for a guide sites to be properly prepared to receive this type of traffic.
This means that if your site delivers a good desktop experience, the challenge is to deliver the same performance on all other screen formats.
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What changes for the user?
Techniques and good UX (User Experience) practices are hardly new for developers. But let’s be honest: most sites don’t mind sacrificing these elements for marketing purposes.
For example, pop-up windows are one a guide of the most hated features in the history of the internet — although their effectiveness in strategies divides opinions.
Their creator, Ethan Zuckerman, has gone so far as to apologize for his invention publicly.
But the frustrations a page can bring about go far beyond:
- elements that suddenly disappear (including text);
- attractive buttons that encourage clicks but don’t link anywhere;
- unsafe navigation alerts;
- pages that simply do not load;
- and various other negative factors.
Considering this, Google’s argument is very simple: what’s the point of having exceptional content if your users can’t enjoy it comfortably?
In this sense, Google’s search engine team clarifies that it is committed to making the web experience more enjoyable for the public.
This doesn’t mean classic advertising actions will cease to exist, but many of them should certainly be revised.
How does this update affect SEO?
In its official announcement, Google makes it clear it seeks to prioritize sites with the best general information, even if the on-page experience is lower.
However, when several sites present similar relevance content, the experience becomes much more important for ranking.
Therefore, we can reference the principles created by Peter Morville, from Semantic Studios (UX Honeycomb). According to him, a well-optimized page should be:
- useful: all information provided must be of some use to the visitor;
- usable: navigation and functionality must be clear;
- desirable: the website must contain visually attractive elements (such as visual identity, images, sounds, and even animations) that encourage user interaction;
- localizable: as the essence of SEO, the page must be present in search platforms;
- accessible: the website must be available to all users, regardless of how they access it;
- valuable: the content must provide users with valuable information, something truly relevant to them;
- reliable: the page must also have authority regarding the topic covered and present elements that convey confidence.
These are the basic practices that direct UX, but they also apply to SEO optimizations.
Although they are relatively vague, they give us an initial sense of what Google expects from new web pages.
The page experience factor is based on the union of what is known as Core Web Vitals.
It is a set of metrics that gathers parameters related to speed, interactivity, visual stability, and other indicators to estimate a website’s ability to deliver a good experience.