What is Google’s Page Experience Algorithm?
When calculating your website’s search ranking, Google uses signals such as page backlinks, well-authored page titles and descriptions, and quality, authoritative page content. These and other metrics remain important and still need to be optimized to perform well in search. The Page Experience Algorithm is a new addition that can be best described as a measurement of page performance on a mobile device.
How Does Page Experience Affect SEO?
Google analyzes several performance metrics to determine a page experience score. These metrics are known as “Core Web Vitals”. They will be incorporated into web search starting in May 2021 and will be continually developed over time. All other things being equal, a page with a better page experience score will be ranked favorably over a page with a poor score.
How Do I Use These Signals and Scores?
Use measurement data to identify problems that slow your website. For example, your website hosting service might have poor response times, or your template is too heavily laden with images, videos and huge JavaScript files to perform well on a mobile device. Consult an internet marketing specialist or webmaster to sort through the data and identify how to improve page loading speed and user input response.
Existing Signals Include:
- Mobile-Friendly – can the page be viewed, interacted with and convert using a mobile device?
- Safe Browsing – is the website free of malware or deceptive content?
- Secure (HTTPS) – is the website secure?
- No Interstitials – no pop-ups, modal window, overlays, or other visuals that prevent a visitor from easily accessing your content.
- Exception: pop-ups to explain cookie usage, age verification or small pop-ups that only cover a reasonable portion of the page (remember: mobile).
New “Core Web Vitals” Include:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – how quickly does the main page content load and become useful to the user?
- First Input Delay (FID) – how quickly can the visitor interact with your page?
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – does the page content remain where it appears, or do things move around while the page is loading?
Search Signals for Page Experience (image credit: Google)
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