Google will soon be rolling out a new update known as the Page Experience Algorithm update.
Google announced the rolling out of the new update in its blog post dated May 28, 2020.
Page Experience is a set of signals that measures the interaction of a user with a webpage.
In this Page Experience optimization guide, we will learn how to optimize your website for page experience. Let’s start!
What Is The Page Experience Algorithm?
The Google Page Experience algorithm measures the overall experience that a webpage offers to its users when they interact with it. It is beyond the informational value offered by the content on your site.
Page Experience algorithm includes the following core signals to measure the real-world user experience for performance, interactivity, and visual stability:
- Core Web Vitals
- Mobile Friendliness
- Safe Browsing
- HTTPS Implementation
- Using Interstitials That Make Content Less Accessible
The motto behind the Page Experience update is to offer users a better user experience. Users might accidentally submit the form on some sites because the submit button accidentally below the finger. Such experiences annoy users. Google aims to reduce the rankings of sites that do not offer a good page experience to the users.
How Page Experience Will Affect Ranking?
Page Experience update will affect rankings of those pages that do not pass the Core Web Vitals assessment.
Content still remains the most important ranking factor but for pages with similar content, Google will prioritize page experience and rank such pages higher in the search results.
Hence, if you want your website to gain an upper hand in the search results, you should start optimizing your site for the Google Page Experience update.
When Is The Page Experience Algorithm Going To Launch?
The Page Experience algorithm is not going to launch before next year (2021). Google will give webmasters six months of advanced notice before launching the Page Experience algorithm update. Considering this, there are possibilities that the Page Experience update will be launched in the mid of 2021 (although no official Google sources have claimed this).
Google has specifically mentioned on their blog that there is no immediate need to take action. But, in the coming months, you will have to optimize your site for Page Experience to continue getting the organic traffic and to maximize the positive impacts of this update on your site.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of quality signals that measures loading experience, interactivity, and visual stability of page content.
The different signals (components) of Core Web Vitals are:
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – LCP measures the time taken for a page to load its main content. The LCP should be below 2.5 seconds.
- FID (First Input Delay) – FID measures the time taken by the users to complete the first interaction on your page. This signal measures the responsiveness of your pages. The FID should be below 100 ms.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – CLS measures the unexpected layout shift of visible page content. If your content is instable then your page CLS score will be less. The CLS should be below 0.1s.
You can check the Core Web Vitals score with the help of the Page Speed Insights tool.
The below table displays different buckets for categorizing good, needs improvement and poor PSI (Page Speed Insights) scores:
| Good | Needs Improvement | Poor | |
| FCP | [0, 1000ms] | (1000ms, 3000ms] | over 3000ms |
| FID | [0, 100ms] | (100ms, 300ms] | over 300ms |
| LCP | [0, 2500ms] | (2500ms, 4000ms] | over 4000ms |
| CLS | [0, 0.1] | (0.1, 0.25] | over 0.25 |
*FCP stands for First Contentful Paint
When you will check the PSI score of your page, it will look like the below screenshot:
What Are The Important Factors of Page Experience Algorithm?
Page Experience ranking algorithm consists of a number of search signals for better web experience.
The figure below displays the different signals that make the Page Experience signals. It contains Core Web Vitals (Loading, Interactivity, and VIsual Stability) signals along with some pre-used signals that Google already uses like mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS, and no intrusive interstitials.
Google Page Experience aims to improve user experience (UX) on the basis of the following factors:
- The page loading speed.
- Page responsiveness.
- Whether the site is secured or unsecured (HTTPS implementation is necessary).
- Whether the site contains any malware or potential security threats.
- How long does the user take to perform an action on the page?
- Does the page pass the Core Web Vitals assessment?
- Does the page pass the mobile-friendly test?
- Is the content on the page less accessible to the user?
- Are there any interstitial for accessing the main content?
How Can I Optimize My Site For The Page Experience Algorithm?
Here are the steps to take to optimize your page for the Google Page Experience algorithm:
- Check your page for mobile-friendliness by taking the Mobile-friendly test.
- Use the Google Search Console to see a full list of issues in the Mobile Usability Report. Fix all such issues to make your page mobile-friendly.
- Use the Google Page Speed Insights to make your web pages faster. The Page Speed Insights tool is the most important tool to optimize your page for the Google Page Experience update. This tool lets you see whether your page passes the Core Web Vitals assessment. It displays a set of opportunities to improve your page load speed after conducting a complete page speed site audit. A score of 90-100 is considered good. The score can change depending on your server speed. The most crucial part of this tool is the Core Web Vitals assessment test. Your page must pass this test for an improved page experience.
- Make sure your site is not hacked by cybercriminals and it does not pose a risk to the security of users. You should check your site regularly on the Search Console to detect any such issues. I also recommend you to check the Google Transparency Report to identify how Google finds unsafe sites.
- Make your site secured by implementing an SSL Certificate on your domain. SSL Certificate will make your domain HTTPS by default. Google wants a web that’s secure by default and this is the reason it displays a ‘site not secure’ label for sites that do not have an SSL Certificate. Hence, sites that are still using the HTTP protocol are at risk of getting affected by the Page Experience update.
- Avoid using techniques that make page content less accessible to the user. For example, showing a pop-up that covers the main content. Besides, if the user has to dismiss an interstitial before the main content is displayed, then this sort of practice will be affected by the Page Experience update.
- Optimize your page for custom metrics because how users interact with your site will be different than how they interact with your competitor’s site. Every site is unique, so apart from the general metrics, take every effort to optimize your entire site for custom metrics as defined in this guide.
Final Thoughts
The Page Experience update is likely to be launched in 2021. Google will inform the webmasters six months in advance before doing that. So, there is no need to panic at the moment, you can take your own time and gradually optimize your site for Core Web Vitals.
