Google has become an essential part of our everyday lives. From organising our events with calendars to smart devices supporting us in our own homes, it is an ever present. All of this has stemmed from its original search engine which opened our eyes to billions of possibilities. It has since been utilised by any and all businesses and websites to bring more customers and visitors to their domain. However, the section of Google that determines where and how often your website appears in online spaces is getting an update with the introduction of Page Experience into Google’s search ranking system. The release of its implementation has been pushed back to mid-June having initially been scheduled for a May roll-out, but now that it is coming, what is the best way to prepare for it?
https://youtu.be/i26b2wdgwPAWhat is Page Experience?
Google Search Console is the hub for all things SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for Google. It provides data and analytics to advise you on the ways in which your website is being seen online. Page Experience is coming in to be another group of factors that Google will consider when determining how often a website is seen online. Currently, Google uses a variety of keywords, tags and more to do this, alongside Core Web Vitals which gets an indication of how well run or smooth a website is to decide how visible it becomes online. Page Experience will work in tandem with Core Web Vitals by evaluating a few more key areas to produce a new score.
These new areas include:
- Mobile Usability – With statistics indicating that over 50% of all website browsing is done on mobile devices, a greater emphasis will be placed on the performance of a website when visited on such devices.
- Ad Experience – Advertising must not be too intrusive, otherwise a bad report will be filed which could put your entire visibility in jeopardy. Even if only one page of your website has a bad advertising experience, the algorithm will assume that this is the case for all the pages on your website.
- Security Issues – All URLs on a site are also at risk of the same treatment if any security issues are discovered, which will give your website a bad score on Page Experience.
- HTTPS Usage – Sites must be using HTTPS to get awarded a good status.
Together with the current set up, your SEO will have to adapt slightly to utilise the new system in the same way as before, with a greater focus on website performance in addition to content.
How do I prepare for the update?
Ensure that your website follows all of these guidelines, it is simple as that. Continue to do all the usual things you may do to improve your chances of appearing in a search with keywords, titles and tags within your content, but take greater care and place a greater emphasis on the actual welfare and usability of your website.
If your website does not navigate smoothly or has potential security breaches, then it will not receive a good score from the new system and it will simply not be very visible if it is searched on the world’s most popular search engine.
Do research and/or ask for help in producing a website that works just as well on mobile devices as it does on a computer. If an online form on your website is only optimised for desktop viewing, then it will not only be difficult for the user to fill in, but it will now contribute to a bad Page Experience score which will in turn lower the visibility of your site.
Finally, you should try and optimise the speed of your website. You can do this with a variety of plugins available online depending on how your website is hosted, and in doing this your website should be more likely to avoid a negative page experience score with regards to its usability.
If you need any support to maximise the SEO of your website and your business, don’t hesitate to get in contact with us here at Laing Media. Our experts will advise you where possible or even take over the whole process to ensure that your business gets new customers coming in online.
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