Are you ready for Google's Page Experience update? [beginning June 2021]

Did you know that Google Search will give more weight to mobile-friendly websites that load fast?

Let's explore solutions and tools that can help you to take advantage of this preference to push your website higher in the search results.

What is the Google Page Experience update?

The Page Experience update is a new addition to Google's Search Algorithm. It aims to boost websites that offer a better user experience. Google's vision statement on this update states:

Building a better web, together.

Our vision for page experience is to build a web ecosystem that users love—together. 

Google will measure 

1. If the page is usable on smartphones and other mobile devices, i.e., whether the page is mobile-friendly
2. How quickly a web page loads.
3. How quickly a visitor can interact with the elements on the page
4. How quickly the page becomes visually stable. A website will be penalized for significant layout shifts, like popups and ads or elements that suddenly pop up over the content.
5. If your website and the connection (HTTPS) to the website are secure.
6. If you have ad violations on your site.

The update will begin mid-June 2021, and Google aims to complete it in August 2021

Is your website mobile-friendly? 

Open Google's mobile-friendly test page in a web browser. In the input box, paste the URL of your landing page or another page. If the test result message says, "Page is mobile friendly", your website is doing great.

What if my website isn't mobile-friendly?

You’ll have to pay attention. Google recently introduced a mobile-first crawler. Google now believes that most users worldwide browse the internet using their phones. The era of the P.C. and laptops is slowly fading away. That’s why you should consider optimizing your website so it displays correctly on smartphones. Google's mobile-friendly test page will give you guidance on how to fix critical issues.

Test how secure and fast a page is

Let's test how secure and responsive the page is. Open Google's Lighthouse tool in a web browser. In the input box, paste the URL of your landing page or another page. If it scores 50 for the performance metric and above 90 for other metrics, your website rocks.

What if the Performance score is below 50?

Don’t worry. Most websites will score below 50. You’ll get a leg up on your competitors if you bump up your score to above 50. Don't worry if you’re above 50 but below 90. Google’s requirements make it hard to score 90 or higher.

What if your Accessibility, Best Practice, or SEO metrics are below 50?

An experienced developer can quickly enhance the score. It’s best if your website scores close to 90 points for all of these metrics. The test result will highlight issues and suggest fixes. A developer can follow the suggestions and improve your website.

Page popup messages and popup ads are bad.

According to Google, popups that cover the main content makes the content less accessible to the user. A developer can follow Google's guide to fix this problem. Our tip is to switch from popups to content placed directly on the page. To make it prominent, position it at the top right corner of the page. The top-right corner is the second spot the user's eye scans when they open a page. If there’s too much content to fit there, leave a link that opens a page displaying the full content.

Content is still king.

If your website complies with the page experience update, people will be able to access the information easily. Yet, your information matters to your users. They visit your page because they think it offers a solution to their problem. Google states: "A good page experience doesn't override having great, relevant content."

Is it time to plan for a website update?

Google will release the update in few phases starting in mid-June. Now that you know about it, consider testing and updating your website. Google's tools above will show you the changes you need to make.



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P.S. We offer an easy-to-use website builder that’s ready for Google's page-experience update. And its takes SEO one step further. Every page is an Accelerated Mobile Page that help your website rank higher for smartphones.

We can help you improve your digital presence. It's easy!