It’s been a while since the last major algorithm change in Google Search, so now the time is upon us. This time around there will be a new ranking factor – Page Experience. If there was ever a question in anyone’s mind about the importance of UI / UX (user interface / user experience), this should settle it once and for all. User experience is all about how your website and its visitors interact. UX/UI has been a growing segment of the website/app industry, and now Google is confirming its importance to the world.
Coincidentally, Stewart SEO has been focusing on what we call Visitor Engagement Optimization (VEO) for years. Check our past blog articles to see it. Our emphasis on visitor engagement is based on great page experience. So you could say that we’re a few years ahead of the curve for this update!
What Is Page Experience?
The new ranking factor is based on a set of metrics called the Core Web Vitals, and the new update is being billed as the Google Page Experience update.
This new factor will join existing factors such as how popular a site is with other sites (links back) and how authoritative is the content on a site, among others. Now, Google is focusing on how it thinks a site visitor will perceive a website. Criteria include website security (https or not), loading time, mobile friendly, popup ads, etc. Anything that might affect your experience using a site could be used as a ranking factor.
With the new update, Google will be testing visual indicators on search results. These indicators will identify which websites in a search result exhibit best practices in UX/UI.
What Does This Mean To Me?
As with any Google search algorithm update, no one can know what will happen to your website’s rankings. On the other hand, Google has made it pretty clear what they expect from a website’s page experience. Although we know the criteria, what we don’t know is how much of an impact the new factors will have on a site’s page rank.
Past updates impacted web ranking substantially. Google’s Panda update affected as much as 11.8% of searches, and BERT affected 10% of searches.
Now you will know the reason if your website hit count plunges or explodes some time in May this year. Your web developer has access to tools that can measure the new metrics already, so contact your developer to determine how your site will fare once the update is rolled out. Stewart SEO has been proactively preparing our client’s sites for the update. If you are worried that your developer isn’t preparing you site’s Page Experience, then give us a call at (806) 758-7959.