How to Prepare Your Website for Google's Page Experience Update

Earning high rankings on Google requires understanding how Google's algorithm works. Like most search engines, it evaluates your website for various metrics including keyword use, loading speed, and user experience. Google's algorithm considers hundreds of on-site and off-site signals when calculating rankings. With its recent Page Experience update, Google's algorithm continues to evolve. Website owners and managers should pay special attention to Page Experience as part of their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) efforts.

What Is the Page Experience Update?

Page Experience is a recent update to Google's ranking algorithm that emphasizes user experience-related signals. As an explanation for the update, Google cited internal and third-party studies attesting to the importance of user satisfaction. Google says that internet users prefer websites that offer a positive page experience, which has prompted the search engine company to release the Page Experience update in 2021.

With Page Experience, Google's algorithm will look more closely at signals related to your website's user experience. The Page Experience update introduces a set of new signals, known as Core Web Vitals, to several existing signs, all of which revolve around the experience of your website's users.

Optimize for Core Web Vitals

To prepare your website for Page Experience, you'll need to optimize it for Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals is a set of three new user experience-related signals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and finally Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Page Experience introduces LCP, FID, and CLS as new ranking signals. LCP is the time it takes for the most significant piece of content on a page to load. FID is when it takes a page to respond to a visitor's command, such as clicking a link or submitting a comment. On the other hand, CLS is an aggregate measurement of how much of a page's content shifts or changes positions while it's being loaded. They are collectively known as Core Web Vitals. Google will now use them with other user experience-related signals to calculate rankings.

You can measure your website's LCP, FID, and CLS using Google's PageSpeed Insights. When running your website through Google's tool, you'll find the specific metrics for these signals.

Design for Mobile Friendliness

According to Google, websites developed with mobile devices in mind deliver a more positive user experience. Google says that over half of all searches performed globally are mobile. To ensure these users have a positive experience, Google rewards mobile-friendly websites with higher rankings. Designing your website for mobile-friendliness will prepare it for Page Experience.

With that said, mobile-friendliness isn't a new ranking signal. Google has been using it to calculate rankings since 2015. The Page Experience update simply adds mobile-friendliness to a group of several other existing and new and existing user experience-related ranking factors. Nonetheless, your website needs to feature a mobile-friendly design to survive Google's Page Experience update. Page Experience shows Google's commitment to creating a mobile-friendly index as it continues to reward mobile-friendly websites with higher rankings.

Lock Down With HTTPS

Page Experience will also consider your website's Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) usage. HTTPS is a security-enhanced networking protocol for websites that is achieved by installing a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate. You can install an SSL certificate on your website so that users can access it over a more secure connection.

Locking down your website with HTTPS will protect users' data from eavesdropping. It works by applying encryption to their data so that no one other than your website can capture it. At the same time, HTTPS will make your website more favorable for Page Experience. Google's new update recognizes HTTPS as a user experience-related signal, which it will continue to use to calculate rankings.

Remove Intrusive Interstitials

If your website currently uses intrusive interstitials, you may want to remove them. Page Experience includes intrusive interstitials as a signal. Rather than positively affecting rankings, though, intrusive interstitials could negatively impact your search position.

What are intrusive interstitials? They are gateway elements, such as pop-ups, that intrude upon the user's experience by covering most or all of a page's content. Users might begin reading a blog post or article, for instance, only for an intrusive interstitial ad to appear. Users will then be forced to stop reading to close it. Page Experience looks for intrusive interstitials and popups. If your website has any content-covering gateway elements, it may not rank as high on Google.

Check for Security Issues

Another tip for preparing your website for Page Experience is to monitor security issues. Page Experience includes Safe Browsing as a ranking signal. If there's a security issue with your website, Google's Safe Browsing cybersecurity service may flag it. Web browsers that use Safe Browsing may block your website to protect its users. You should specifically check it for security issues identified by Google. If Google finds malware, harmful downloads, or deceptive pages on your website, its Safe Browsing service will likely flag your site.

You can find security issues identified by Google using Search Console. In Search Console, there's a tab for security issues that, when selected, will reveal this information. You'll see the type of security issue identified by Google and details on how to fix it.

Leaving one or more security issues unaddressed can have a disastrous impact on your website's rankings. Google may temporarily deindex your website. For example, if it has a security issue. Page Experience recognizes security issues as harmful to user experience, so you'll have to fix them.

With Page Experience, making your website fast, secure, and mobile-friendly is more important than ever. Google's new update places user experience at the center of its ranking algorithm. If your website offers a positive experience by targeting all the right signals, it may rank higher thanks to Page Experience.