Google Page Experience Update Launching in Mid-June

14 May, 2021 Uncategorized

Google is postponing the launch of its new page experience update to mid-June 2021. The update was originally scheduled to launch in May. This extension in time for the launch gives business/website owners another month or so to prepare for the update. Although the update will begin launching in mid-June, Google has stated that the update will not affect search rankings fully until August. The reason for this slow implementation of the update is to observe any issues that arise so they can be fixed.

What is in the Google Page Experience Update?

According to Google, the goal of the update is to improve the overall web-browsing experience on both mobile and desktop. Prior to the update, Google had always developed experience signals on websites, measuring user experience on websites. After the update, user experience will now be a direct ranking factor. Therefore, more user-friendly pages will be pushed higher on Google’s results page.

One of the more significant changes in this update is that Google will be combining current signals for page experience with core web vitals. Core web vitals are performance factors that analyze how user-friendly your page is. Currently, Google has three core web vitals. The first core web vital is the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). LCP measures how quickly a website loads. The second core web vital is the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). CLS measures the stability and organization of the content on your website. The last core web vital is the First Input Delay (FID). This vital measure the amount of time a page takes to be interactive.

Other factors that will affect ranking with the new update are mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS, and no intrusive interstitials. These combined with the core web vitals will be able to determine a site’s Google ranking more efficiently.

Preparing for the Google Page Experience Update

With Google providing times notice before the update, it is important to prepare your site prior to the launch. Recently Google had updated many of its tools and tests that analyze the user-friendliness of a website. They updated these to analyze the core web vitals of the websites. Using these tools to analyze and notice any fixes to make your website more user-friendly. Some of these tools are:

  • Lighthouse: Measures core web vitals.
  • PageSpeed Insights: Measures loading and running speed.
  • Chrome DevTools Panel: Measures different factors of page performance.
  • dev/measure: Provides performance reports and recommendations.
  • Web Vitals extension: Allows website owner to always monitor Core Web Vitals.

By understanding core web vitals and the different factors to making your website more user-friendly, you can prepare your website for the update. These resources are managed by Google and are helpful with not only testing your website but offering suggestions. Prepare for the page experience update and thrive in SEO.