Google Page Experience update, how and what to assess on the site

The countdown has now started: there are in fact less than six months to the official start of the Google Page Experience Update, which introduces new factors and parameters for algorithmic evaluations on the ranking of pages, specifically based on Core Web Vitals and other elements related to user experience satisfaction. After seeing which are the main FAQs according to Google, let’s get to know now how to prepare the site, know which areas to focus attention and what to optimize to be ready to launch this important update thanks to the advice of professionals in the industry.

Consideration to make about the Page Experience Update

Google’s announcement on the start of the Page Experience in May 2021 did not surprise us, but it did provide us with a reference date that is useful to outline a workplan to be done until then, so as not to be caught unawares by the new ranking criteria and eventually lose positions.

But what does “preparing the site” for these elements mean and what should we focus on? George Nguyen of Search Engine Land asked this to several SEO professionals, and in particular to Kim Dewe (head of SEO for the agency Blue Array), Pedro Dias (former Googler and now head of SEO for the British publisher Reach PLC), Matt Dorville (SEO manager for Buzzfeed) and Alexis Sanders (SEO director at Merkle), with whom he spoke about the various aspects to consider in the coming months.

The impact of the update inside and out the search results page

“It won’t be an important change, but you shouldn’t ignore it either,” said Pedro Dias, a former search quality analyst at Google. In his opinion, many of the page experience criteria – such as mobile optimization, HTTPS, the presence of intrusive interstitial, page speed and navigation security – already are Google Search’s ranking factors, and therefore sites should already be optimized with this in mind.

Search Intent, quality and relevance will still be main factors

There seem to be more criticalities than with Core Web Vitals, as also noted by a study that analyzed the delays of the sites compared to the optimization according to the three signals (Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay and Cumulative Layout Shift). Yet, Dias states that “Google will probably never sacrifice quality and relevance to other technical aspects”.

On the same line of thought is Matt Dorville, who believes that Core Web Vitals are “important for your site and your user, but do not replace the key priorities such as search intent and quality content”, which will remain a priority for algorithm ranking assessments. In a scenario where however quality content has become more frequent, having a technical advantage could become a decisive element to improve your ranking after this update.

Effects on the daily work of SEOs

In addition to its potential impact on search results, the update of the on-page experience could also affect the way SEOs approaches optimization, providing them with a set of quantitative metrics to tend to.

It is the Kim Dewe’s belief, who recalls that, until now, “when it came to improving the page experience the SEO have stumbled into the interpretation of the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines without ever really understanding their importance in ranking”.

Now, instead, even the SEO profession will be able to more effectively evolve, carrying on “the trend according to which SEOs will need to become more technical (if they are not already) to be able to talk to engineers while solving problems on speed, Javascript rendering and ways to prioritize Google requests, in relation to the company’s other priorities”, said Dorville.

The importance of beginning right now the evaluation process on the site

All the experts agree on the importance of starting immediately the process of planning and evaluating the interventions to be done on the site in view of May, without waiting for a solution “at the last minute”.

Some of the factors included in this update, such as page speed, are already fundamental principles of SEO and should always be part of these considerations. In particular, for Alexis Sanders “the latency of the site is something that can (and should) be discussed at any time in the life cycle of a site/page (at the beginning of the design process is better!)”, adding that “the tricky part of page speed is that everything requires trade-offs”.

More direct is Dorville, who invites you not to consider as “gospels the requirements set by Google”, because “publishers must also weigh other corporate responsibilities“; for example, “setting ad sizes will help the cumulative layout shift metric, but many companies refuse to change this setting because they need public revenue“. This is “something that the SEOs will have to live with or find a way to offset revenue from ads,” he said.

Considering the AMP alternative

Google has repeatedly reiterated that most AMP pages already have an excellent performance in terms of metrics on the page experience, and therefore “all sites that currently use AMP could have an advantage, since they have already considered the latency in their experience”, Sanders also summarizes.

As we said in our in-depth analysis of the relationship between AMP and Google Page Experience, however, the issue is more complex because now sites that have well-equipped technology divisions can choose to give up or abandon the framework. Or, as Dorville predicts, “instead of keeping what are essentially two sites [the original non-amp version and the AMP version], one of which could get less money in ads, they will focus on matching Google’s requirements for page experience with UX metrics, what they should already have on the site to measure retention and loyalty”

Moreover, from May the carousel of featured news (top stories) will also be open to non-AMP pages, and this may further encourage publishers to invest in improving metrics on page experience in order to be more competitive in search results, increase the chances of obtaining content in this feature and, in general, offer a more positive experience to visitors, potentially getting more advertising revenue.

According to Dias, however, “the Page Experience and the Core Web Vitals are designed to exist as a parallel alternative to AMP and not to act as a substitute. So if you have all the resources and want to make your site faster and slimmer than you could get with AMP, now you have been given the opportunity. Otherwise, if you can’t afford to accept this challenge, AMP will probably still be the fallback solution”.

Being ready for visual indicators in SERP, too

The real news of Google’s latest announcement is Google’s idea to put in SERP a visual indicator to distinguish search results that met all the page experience criteria – which follows the other symbols recently used by Google, such as the AMP icon or tags “slow” and “mobile friendly”.

This indicator – it has not yet revealed and anticipated by a series of tests – could become important in the decision-making process of users, say Sanders, Dorville and Dias, especially if this label “will be a positive reinforcement and will be noticed”, remembering that “potentially any visual change to the SERP can lead to changes in the CTR”.

More critical is Dewe’s position, which reflects on the fact that Google’s interest is “to provide search results that match users’ expectations, regardless of whether those results meet all the experience criteria on the page”. Therefore, “visual indicators for a subset of ranking factors may not affect the decision on whether to click a web page or not”.

Focusing the entire 2021 work on Page Experience? Maybe not…

In conclusion, according to experts, the amount of work to optimize the site and adapt the page experience to the required parameters “will depend on the amount of investment you have already made”: Larger publishers may currently use AMP to provide their content or have resources to make regular updates to their user experience, while smaller publishers may need to be more cautious and plan ahead.

At Buzzfeed, for instance, they are not yet examining Google’s specific metrics, while focusing on similar metrics for its users, and Dorville states that much will depend on the “true impact of change in terms of positioning and traffic”. In particular, “we are trying to measure the user experience, observe our competitors and quantify the impact of the update when it actually comes out, but we do not intend to make significant changes to the site or backlog until we have the data”.

According to Dewe, “it’s never too early to start preparing” and Dias is already working in this direction: “If you compete in an industry where most competitors already have great content, but the user experience is not great, improving this aspect may give you an advantage”, he says, recommending however not to expect “great ranking improvements simply if you simply comply with all Core Web Vitals but offer poor content“.