Why Google Page Experience Updates Are More Painful Than Stepping On A Lego

It was like a disaster for all website owners when Google announced that they would be updating the Google page experience. As we know Google cares a lot about its users, that’s why it is a priority search engine for almost every internet user. In May 2020, Google announced that they are updating the Google page experience, which means if your website runs slowly or has errors, Google will not rank and recommend it to its users.

Those whose website has no errors and runs fast don’t have to worry because Google will rank and recommend their content if it’s SEO optimized accordingly and those whose website has bugs and runs slowly should worry and optimize their website. So, if your website has bugs and runs slowly, what should you do? I will share some tips about it. Before we continue, you should know about the Google page experience and its new update.

What is Google page experience and its new update?

Let’s use you for example: you went to Google and searched for the “best mouses in the United States” and some results appeared. You clicked the first result, but it shows irrelevant content to your query. What would you do? Of course, you’d go back and check the second result and that is exactly what you were looking for.

Undoubtedly, you’ll spend time on it and read its content, which means your experience on that page was great, so Google will rank that second result on top and that first page will go down. So now you understand how the Google page experience works. So, what are the elements which Google sees in ranking a website’s content excluding relevant results and good content? Or, in simple terms, what are the conditions for a better Google page experience?

In order to clearly understand you need to know about Core Web Vitals. For instance, you’re an interviewer and conducting an interview of a candidate. You’ll probably ask the candidate for a resume. So why would you ask for a resume? Because it reflects their experience, education, and a little bit of an introduction, which is all you need to know in order to select them. Similarly, here Core Web Vitals plays the role of resume that includes Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (LCP). I’ll explain further.

The necessity for a better Google page experience

Here’s a brief discussion about core web vitals and the details of which Google will include in the new update of Google page experience.

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

As a Google user, I prefer a fast website that doesn’t waste time. Largest Contentful Paint measures a website’s speed. For instance, how much time it takes to load its content. Content includes images, texts, and links. In its new update, Google has set a new time for loading the content on a website. The average loading time is between 2.5 and 4.0 seconds, which Google still thinks needs improvement for a better experience.

First Input Display (FID)

The second thing that Google is focusing on in its update is First Input Display. First Input Display pertains to the interactivity of the user on the website. So what does it mean? It means how responsive the website is and how much time does the user interact with the website. In simple terms, in how much time did the user click on the website?

So, basically, Google aims to vanish all the useless and time taking stuff from its ranked URL. Sometimes you might come across a page that has loaded, but due to some reason, you can’t click on its content. Google has set a standard time for better interactivity of a user on a website (FID) which is less than 100 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift

Have you ever tried clicking a link when, all of a sudden, that link changes its position. This is quite frustrating and it leaves a bad scar on the Google page experience. In Google’s new update (CLS) will measure how many times a user experiences a layout shift that was unexpected. If the CLS isn’t maintained below 0.1 or less, then it will be considered as a failure of the website which will affect its ranking.

Mobile-Friendly

For a better Google page experience, Google aims to make the website and its content mobile-friendly. This means checking the website to work as accurately as in windows on mobile. If you want to check if your website loads accurately on mobile and is mobile-friendly, then do the Mobile-Friendly test.

HTTP

As we know, these days security and privacy are important for every internet user. Google has kept security strong with the HTTP of a website as a condition for a better page experience. Google has decided to solve the issues of security of websites and to build the trust of the people on the website. If the website is unsecured then no one will click on its content and will prefer not to stay. If you want to check your website security then go to your website. You will see an icon beside the address bar that will indicate your website’s security.

Avoid intrusive interstitials

Thanks to Google for focusing on the most frustrating thing ever. Google has notified that for a better Google page experience on mobile, pop-up ads should be eradicated. If a user is browsing on a website when an ad pops up on the screen suddenly, it leads to a bad page experience.

Tools for optimizing your website to rank on Google

I mentioned earlier that I’d give you some tips for optimizing your website according to Google’s new update. You can use the Google developer tools, which are specifically developed for optimizing core web vitals. For making your website mobile-friendly, you can use the Mobile-Friendly Test to check if your website is mobile-friendly. Mobile-friendly Test is a google website that is totally free. If you want to know more about all of the implementation of optimization then do visit Google’s developer website.

Have any more tips foroptimizing your website according to the new Google page experience update. Let us know down in the comments.

This article originally published on GREY Journal.