Google’s Page Experience update is a significant change to the way the search giant evaluates and ranks websites. This update, which is set to roll out in May 2021, will place a greater emphasis on the user experience of a website, including factors such as loading speed, mobile responsiveness, and the overall design of the site. To ensure that your website is prepared for this update, it’s important to take steps to optimize for Page Experience.
The first step in optimizing for Page Experience is to understand the criteria that Google is using to evaluate websites. These criteria include:
- Speed: Google is looking for websites that load quickly and don’t keep users waiting. This includes both the time it takes for a page to load, as well as the time it takes for above-the-fold content to load.
- Mobile responsiveness: Google wants to ensure that users have a good experience when visiting your website on a mobile device. This includes making sure that your site is easily navigable on a smaller screen, and that it doesn’t require users to zoom in to read content.
- Visual stability: Google is looking for websites that don’t have elements that move around on the page, as this can be distracting and disruptive to the user experience.
- HTTPS: Google wants to ensure that users’ data is secure when they visit your website. This means that your site should be served over HTTPS, which provides an added layer of security.
- No intrusive interstitials: Google wants to ensure that users aren’t presented with pop-ups or other elements that block their access to content.
Once you understand the criteria that Google is using to evaluate websites, you can begin to take steps to optimize your site for Page Experience. Here are some specific strategies you can use:
- Optimize your images: Large, high-resolution images can slow down your website, making it take longer to load. To speed up your site, consider compressing your images to reduce their file size.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN can help to speed up your website by caching your content and delivering it to users from a server that’s closest to them.
- Use a mobile-responsive design: Make sure that your website is easy to navigate on a mobile device, and that it doesn’t require users to zoom in to read content.
- Use a caching plugin: Caching plugins can help to speed up your website by storing a copy of your pages in the user’s browser, so they don’t have to be re-loaded each time the user visits your site.
- Use a website speed test tool: There are a number of online tools that you can use to test the speed of your website, such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights. These tools can provide you with specific recommendations for how to improve your site’s speed.
- Use a website audit tool: There are a number of online tools that you can use to audit your website, such as Google’s Lighthouse. These tools can provide you with specific recommendations for how to improve your site’s overall user experience.
- Use structured data: Structured data can help Google understand the content of your website better. This can include things like product information, reviews, and more.
- Use a tool to monitor your website’s uptime: Google wants to ensure that users have a good experience when visiting your website, which means that it should be available and accessible at all times. Use a tool to monitor your website’s uptime so you can be alerted if it goes down.
- Use Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a powerful tool that can help you to identify and fix technical SEO issues on your website.
- Optimize your code: The code that makes up your website can also affect its speed and performance. Make sure that your code is clean, well-organized, and free of errors. This can help to reduce the amount of time it takes for your website to load. Additionally, make sure to use the latest web technologies and standards to ensure your website is current and up-to-date.
- Minimize redirects: Redirects can slow down your website and create a poor user experience. Minimize the number of redirects on your site and make sure that they are set up correctly.
- Make sure your site is accessible: Accessibility is an important aspect of user experience. Make sure that your website is accessible to users with disabilities, such as those who use screen readers or other assistive technologies.
- Monitor your website’s performance: Keep an eye on your website’s performance over time. Use tools like Google Analytics to track your site’s traffic, bounce rates, and other metrics. This can help you to identify areas where your website needs improvement and make changes accordingly.
- Monitor your website’s backlinks: The backlinks that point to your website can have an impact on your search engine rankings. Use a tool like Ahrefs or Majestic to monitor your website’s backlinks and identify any that may be harming your search engine visibility.
- Monitor your website’s keyword rankings: Use a keyword tracking tool like SEMrush to monitor your website’s rankings for important keywords. This can help you to identify areas where your website is performing well and areas where it needs improvement.
- Monitor your website’s crawl errors: Google’s crawlers may encounter errors when trying to access your website. Use Google Search Console to monitor your website’s crawl errors and fix any that you find.
- Monitor your website’s broken links: Broken links can harm your website’s user experience and search engine visibility. Use a tool like Ahrefs or Majestic to monitor your website’s broken links and fix any that you find.
- Monitor your website’s security: Make sure that your website is secure and that it doesn’t have any vulnerabilities that could be exploited by hackers. Use a tool like Sucuri to monitor your website’s security and fix any issues that you find.
- Monitor your website’s duplicate content: Duplicate content can harm your website’s search engine visibility. Use a tool like Copyscape to monitor your website’s duplicate content and fix any issues that you find.
By following these strategies, you can optimize your website for Google’s Page Experience update and improve your search engine visibility. Remember that optimizing for Page Experience is an ongoing process, so make sure to regularly monitor your website’s performance and make changes as needed.
Another important aspect of optimizing for Google’s Page Experience update is to pay attention to Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure the load speed, interactivity and visual stability of a webpage. They are used by Google to evaluate the user experience of a website and are a key factor in the Page Experience update.
Here are the three main Core Web Vitals that you should focus on:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures the loading speed of a webpage by measuring the time it takes for the largest content element to load. To improve your LCP, you can try optimizing your images, using a CDN, and minifying your code.
- First Input Delay (FID): This metric measures the interactivity of a webpage by measuring the time it takes for a user to be able to interact with it. To improve your FID, you can try reducing the number of scripts running on your webpage, and using web workers to keep the main thread free for user input.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric measures the visual stability of a webpage by measuring the amount of layout shift that occurs during loading. To improve your CLS, you can try using fixed position elements and reserving space for ad and iframes.
To check if your website is meeting the Core Web Vitals standards, you can use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights, Chrome DevTools, Lighthouse and Web Vitals Extension. These tools will provide you with detailed information on how your site is performing in terms of Core Web Vitals and will give you recommendations on how to improve.
Another important aspect of optimizing for Page Experience is to ensure that your website is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities. This includes implementing features such as alt text for images, closed captions for videos, and good color contrast. You can also use tools like WAVE and A11Y to test and improve the accessibility of your website.
In conclusion, optimizing for Google’s Page Experience update is crucial for ensuring that your website ranks well in search results and provides a positive user experience. By following best practices for website speed, mobile responsiveness, visual stability, HTTPS, and accessibility, as well as focusing on Core Web Vitals and monitoring your website’s performance, you can improve your website’s Page Experience score and boost your search engine visibility.
