Google finally unveiled their anticipated march Page Experience Update, this time for desktop devices. It was the second such algorithm update rolled out in recent years, the previous one being aimed at optimizing results for user searches on mobile devices.
Compared to the first one, which took two and a half months to implement, the page experience rollout for desktop devices was deployed in only nine days and was announced as finalized by Google on March 3rd. It brings a few changes to how Google treats a website’s core web vitals and shifts the priority of graphical elements in ranking a site’s position in the SERPs.
Like other rollouts before it, the page experience update is an enhancement to the Google algorithm, which attempts to streamline and systematize the methods by which crawlers can gather the information necessary for desktop users to have a satisfying experience. And what’s different is that the update slightly changes the factors taken into account by Google when determining the percentage of user satisfaction in relation to the pages of the accessed site.
A website that meets Google’s criteria will rank higher in the SERPs, which will translate into an influx of users and increased profits for the site owners. Google Search Console can generate a report identifying what needs to be changed for a site to be correctly optimized based on the new update. But what are these changes more precisely?’
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If you’ve been paying attention to the previous mobile update released by Google in 2021, then some of these items are probably already familiar to you. First of all, to benefit positively from the new update, your website must comply with the so-called Core Web Vitals, which are divided into LCP, CLS, and FID. What do these abbreviations mean?
LCP stands for Largest Contentful paint and is related to the loading performance of your website. More specifically, with this criterion, Google will consider the loading speed of the most prominent graphic element on your site. For example, if all the other parts of your site load but there is a particular graphic design, photo, or video that takes longer to fully render compared to the other aspects of your page, then this can drag down your score in Google’s algorithms.
CLS stands for Cumulative Layout Shift and refers to elements that appear fully loaded on a site but change their position on the screen at the last moment, which can lead to misclicks. The presence of this behavior can influence how the search engine promotes your site. And FID refers to Fist Input Delay, which is the time it takes for the user to have their first interaction with your site—for example, clicking on a link to go to another page. The faster the user interacts with your site, the better the search engine thinks their experience was.
The new page experience algorithm update didn’t just focus on changes to core web vitals but also elevated the importance of how google perceives the security of a website. And this aspect was mainly changed by implementing a new, enhanced look at the usage of the HTTPS protocol. If your website implements this kernel for all indexed pages and thus encrypts user information, then Google can give you a boost in the SERPs. But if not, the rollout of the new page experience update might make the site’s performance suffer.
The new page experience rollout also increases focus on eliminating intrusive interstitials or pop-ups as they are known to the general public. The purge of websites that use pop-ups in their content was necessary because this particular graphical element can lead, at least on mobile devices, to site functionality issues that can be a deal breaker for most users.
The new page experience algorithm update has come with some changes to the ranking process of websites that you are probably already familiar with if you had to do some optimization after the previous mobile update. And many of the factors that can influence the number of visitors to your site are the same as those you already know. But all these changes have one thing in common: they aim to improve visitor interaction with the elements already existing on your website.
First of all, you should pay close attention to the core web vitals and how they influence your website’s functionality. Graphics should be optimized to load as fast as the content of articles, and unnecessary images and videos should be removed entirely. You should also implement HTTPS on all existing pages on your site, and last, but not least, you should eliminate the use of pop-ups, which can not only be detrimental to your ranking in the SERPs but can directly lead to a decrease in user interactions with your services due to the problems they cause on mobile and desktop devices.
The changes brought by Google’s evolving algorithms can often be quite complex for an inexperienced web admin, which is why most people should seek the professional services of a company like GAMIT, which can create a complete SEO strategy for a business after the completion of a professional audit.
Algorithm changes can lead to modifications in the priority of improvements that need to be made to a site. Perhaps a new security kernel urgently needs to be implemented, the core web vitals must be redesigned, or maybe a revamp of the articles written so far is required. Either way, Google introduces hundreds of small changes to the algorithms every year. Some are minor, while others are significant, such as page experience rollout for desktop devices. And to ensure you are always one step ahead of the competition, it’s best to call in professionals with experience in the SEO domain.
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