In April 2021, Google announced that the Page Experience update will be gradually rolled out beginning in mid-June 2021. Because features will be mixed in slowly over time, the full impact of Page Experience won’t take effect until late August. This comes as a relief to many site owners, as there is more time to prepare for this critical algorithm update.
Last year, Google announced a major update coming in 2021. This algorithm update, known as Core Web Vitals, is part of the larger Page Experience update. The intention of Page Experience and Core Web Vitals is to measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page. The update is in line with Google’s initiative to make the search experience more helpful and enjoyable.
Page Experience includes factors such as Core Web Vitals, HTTPS security, absence of intrusive interstitials, safe browsing status, and mobile friendliness. Many of these ranking signals are already existent.
Now is the time to understand Page Experience and Core Web Vitals. It is important to know how they will affect your website and how to optimize your site for them. We strongly recommend reviewing your site’s eligibility sooner than later. Websites who do not meet the requirements for Page Experience will be at a disadvantage against their competitors.
What is Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals is part of Google’s Page Experience algorithm update. Core Web Vitals specifically measures three signals that affect user experience on mobile and desktop. These factors are measured when a user navigates to a landing page. These three signals are:
- Loading (Largest Contentful Pain or LCP) – How long does the page take to load.
- Interactivity (First Input Delay or FID) – How soon can the page be interacted with (think buttons or other clickable elements).
- Visual Stability(Cumulative Layout Shift or CLS) – How much do page elements shift around as the page finishes loading.
Google wants a helpful, enjoyable user experience across the web. By optimizing your site for Page Experience, you can ensure that visitors are getting the best experience. As an added bonus, also improve your ranking in search results. In other words, user interaction is an important part of your overall SEO.
How Does Core Web Vitals Affect My Website?
Will your website be penalized if it is not optimized for the Core Web Vitals and Page Experience update? No! However, if your competitors’ websites are optimized for the new update, they will most likely be ranked higher than yours. In other words, Page Experience introduces important ranking factors.
To be clear, Google, and users, want an enjoyable web experience. This means web pages shouldn’t take a long time to load, be difficult to interact with, secure, and mobile friendly.
If visitors come to your site and can’t find what they are looking for, that is reason enough to evaluate. Visitors who are frustrated by shifting elements, intrusive pop-ups, or other challenges, are more likely to leave altogether. Optimizing your website for Page Experience is in your best interest just as much it is to your visitors.
How Smartz is Preparing Their Clients for the Core Web Vitals Update
SEO work to prepare for this large Google algorithm update takes a lot of time and effort that not many business owners have to spare. That’s why Smartz developed a plan to optimize their client websites for Core Web Vitals when the news first broke.
With the right tools and experience, the Smartz SEO team has ensured that their partners are ready for Page Experience coming in June.
“Since Google’s announcement last year, our SEO and Web development teams have been working together to improve our client’s page experience signals. Each client site is unique and offers its own set of challenges. The SEO team developed a method to accurately measure and report key metrics for each URL on a site.
This provided the Web development team quick feedback on changes made; therefore, it allowed them optimize each URL efficiently to pass Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics.” – Bobby Black, SEO Manager
The Smartz team is preparing our partners ahead of time. When the update is finally realized, their websites are fully optimized. With careful planning and testing, Smartz is making sure our partners’ websites are not left behind.
Are you looking to elevate your digital marketing? Today is the day. Contact the Smartz team and let’s start the conversation.