Earlier last year, Google announced its grand plan to begin ranking web pages based on how easy they are to interact with. This update — known as the Google Page Experience — will take effect in May this year.
Luckily, Google made this announcement almost a year in advance as a way to give business owners and SEOs adequate time to make the necessary adjustments.
So, are you ready for Google’s Page Experience update? How well are you prepared to optimize your website visibility in line with these changes? Here’s all you should know and tips to optimize your website in 2021.
What Is the Google Page Experience Update?
Google has established new metrics to understand the experience that users get on your web pages. Is the page mobile-friendly? Is the site’s speed slow? Is it secure? Does it enlist excess pop-ads, or unstable landing pages?
The updated Google algorithm will synthesize these and several other factors to determine UX within your sites and use these stats to rank your webpages.
These new changes are under what Google refers to as Core Web Vitals.
What Are Google’s Core Web Page Vitals?
These are user-based metrics that judge website pages using factors like interactivity, the site’s load time, and its stability as the content loads. The three main web page vitals include LCP, FID, and CLS:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Simply put, how long does it take to load the largest piece of content on the page? This could be a video, a header image, or even a large block of text. The goal here should be within 2.5 seconds.
First Input Delay (FID)
How long does it take for a user to begin interacting with your page? Good web pages should allow users to interact within 100 milliseconds of loading.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
How much does the contain on your page bounce around while assets load? Web pages with good UX should have a CLS score of below 0.1.
According to Google, page experience is not essentially a ranking score, but rather a group of elements that will impact how the platform judges your website pages.
Other Items That Impact Page Experience
While the Core Web Vitals are a good look into how your site is doing, that’s not the end of the line. There are other items that Google is on the lookout for that are a part of this new update. These factors include:
Site Security
Given the continually increasing cases of data hacks and breaches, Google prioritizes its users’ security now more than ever. Hacked content and malicious malware are only a couple of potential safety breaches that users can experience online. Making sure that your site has an SSL certificate is key to providing a safe and secure browsing experience for users. Is your page serving an SSL? If not, contact BizIQ to learn how you can secure your website with HTTPS.
Mobile-friendliness
According to research conducted by Statista, almost half of Google’s daily searches originate from mobile devices. This explains why they insist on the mobile friendliness of web pages. Can your contents realign to fit different screen sizes? Are your articles as easy to read on a mobile device as they are on a desktop? Find out your site’s mobile friendliness using Google’s free Mobile Testing Tool. The truth is that if your pages are not mobile-friendly, you’re losing out on the vast demographic of mobile phone users. Worse still, the pages will be ranked low in Google’s organic search results.
Intrusive Interstitials & Pop-ups
Google is a big data company. While it’s true that it is also a great marketing tool, excessive pop-ups and ads come across as intrusive. They may deter users from accessing content as quickly as they need to. That’s why Google plans to eliminate (rank low) sites whose contents are not easily accessible.
How to Optimize Your Website In 2021
Google receives over 3.5 billion search requests each day. In the U.S., more than 87% of shoppers will first search for merchandise online before buying them (Retail Dive). These statistics show you why optimizing your website visibility is no longer a luxury; it’s essential. If you can draw more traffic to your sites, you will generate more leads and eventually drive more revenue. What’s more — leads generated from searches are more qualified than conventional marketing approaches like direct emailing.
Here are five tips to optimize your website in 2021:
- Carry Out A Comprehensive SEO Audit: You first need to identify your current status before designing an SEO roadmap. Find out why you are not receiving enough traffic and deriving maximum sales from your traffic. Finally, set out your SEO goals and detail the steps you’ll follow to achieve them.
- Use the Inverted Pyramid Style for Content: Usually, users skim through the first few lines of your content before deciding on a full read. Whether they read the whole article depends on how useful and intriguing they find the first paragraph.
- That’s where the inverted pyramid writing style comes in handy — Put the most valuable and exciting information at the top of your content. This way, it will attract and retain more users.
- Make Your Websites More Mobile-Friendly: As we pointed out earlier, most of Google’s searches originate from mobile devices. So, any organization that seeks to optimize its websites must focus on this vast demographic. Besides, Google recently updated its ranking algorithms to favor mobile-friendly websites.
- Learn What Your Users Are Looking For: Users only pay attention to contents that address their needs. Therefore, you should ensure that your websites focus on what your users want. Check social media platforms like Quora, post comment sections, and Google Analytics for what surfers within your niche talk about most or want to know. Next, customize your content to address these interests.
- Leverage Infographics: Most people are visual learners; they are 30× more likely to consume and process infographics than text messages. Therefore, contents with graphical illustrations always attract and retain more users.
Receive Professional Help with Your SEO Efforts
More business transactions are going online, from marketing to sales. Therefore, you cannot afford to overlook the vitality of SEO if you want to stay ahead of your competition.
With Google’s introduction of new Core Web Vitals to its ranking algorithms, BizIQ understands that the new concepts may be a little challenging even for seasoned SEO experts. You can always consult with us whenever you feel lost or need an extra hand picking up the slack. We have helped over 20,000 U.S. businesses of all sizes to optimize their website visibility and increase brand awareness.