In May 2020 Sowmya Subramanian, Director of Engineering for the Google Search Ecosystem published an interesting article about a new ranking factor that Google implemented in 2021. The Page Experience.
So, let’s learn a little more about what “page experience” is and how it can affect organic rankings this year.
Google has been hard at work on all things AI, natural language processing and content optimization by improving all of their web analytics and user experience analytics tools like Search Console, Page Speed including the new Core Web Vitals metrics.
Do not forget that it has also invested a lot of resources in topics such as BERT or EAT evaluation metrics.
Regarding the quality guidelines of the content that is generated and that are within what the acronym EAT is, it may be of interest to you to know that in March 2020, Google has published a new patent that seeks to know who the authors are who create the content of websites.
“Google can use neural networks to know and understand the styles of the authors and to be able to differentiate them”.
If we think about the amount of content that is generated daily on the Internet, it makes sense to find out who creates it in order to give one value or another.
All these resources that Google is investing in are related to the goal of offering the user the best, specific, valuable and fast information in different formats (text, image, audio and video).
We are already moving from the “standard” SEO metrics as they have basically been, creating content (better extensive) + Mobile First + backlinks to another formula in which the Core Web Vitals and the page experience are added.
As I mentioned above, in May 2020, Google published the following:
…providing a preview of an upcoming search ranking change that incorporates these page experience metrics.
We will introduce a new signal that combines Core Web Vitals with our existing signals for page experience to provide a holistic picture of the quality of a user’s experience on a web page.
Sowmya Subramanyan
You may be thinking that you already knew this as “user experience”, however, user experience is not the same as page experience.
The page experience is one step further. adding the optimization of a web page through the Core Web Vitals. The signals on which the page experience is based are:
- The Core web vitals (LCP, FID, CLS)
- Compatibility with mobile devices (usability and navigation)
- Safe browsing (malware, misleading content)
- HTTPS
- Intrusive popups
Page Experience Metrics
The page experience signal measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page.
Optimizing these factors makes the Internet more enjoyable for users across all browsers and web surfaces, and helps sites evolve toward user expectations on mobile devices.
The goal is to reduce the friction that exists between users and getting the content.
Page experience signals measure dimensions of web usability, load time, interactivity, and content stability as the page loads.
Surely you have entered a web page where it seems that “the content moves” before it finishes loading.
This is quite annoying, because many times you click on elements or links that you don’t want by mistake. Therefore, these new web signals are more accurate than the previous ones and push webmasters to offer faster, more stable websites, with verified content and greater security.
If you are using pop up to capture users, you should check that they do not “annoy” or may appear to “deceive” your website visitors in some way.
It Is Important That You Keep This In Mind:
“While all components of the page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of the page experience are unsatisfactory”.
“A good experience on the page does not cancel having excellent and relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages with similar content, the page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search”.
Google’s Sowmya Subramanian
As you can see, content is still a very strong ranking signal, however, in cases where there may be two or more websites with very similar content (and backlinks), this new page experience factor can make a difference in your rankings. the classification.
Here you will surely see as always, a lot of discussion at the SEO level. Some will say that the optimization of a web page will be paramount, others that the content and others that the external links.
I know there are a lot of SEO people “grabbing” to claim that loading speed is SUPER important for ranking. However, this statement is too simplistic.
For Example:
A page with low quality content that loads quickly will not necessarily rank higher than a page with slower high quality relevant content.
We must stop focusing on measuring one thing, and as Google itself says, we must see the entire web page in a more holistic way.
Let’s think for a moment about what is happening, for example, with the avalanche of dropshipping online stores that are being created just this year.
There can be thousands of them in Spain alone, multiplied by almost any theme.
The content is almost the same, very similar or sometimes clones of each other, varying little more than the logo.
So somehow Google must know which one to rank higher, right?
These page experience signals added to the traditional signals like the quality of incoming links, the quality of the content, social signals, usability and user behavior, can make a difference in some way.
When will these new page experience signals be released?
In May 2021.
Tools That Will Help Us Improve The Page Experience
- Google Search Console
- Page Speed Insights
- Core Web Vitals Tools
- Chrome DevTools
- Lighthouse
What Threshold Should My Website Pass In The Core Web Vitals Metrics
To pass the Core Web Vitals Test and pass, Google sets a threshold of 75% of all metrics, both on mobile and desktop.
I know that for websites that are developed to measure, it will not be a problem to exceed these metrics, however, for all those who work with WordPress it may seem complicated in some cases, to obtain an acceptable score from tools such as Page Speed or Lighthouse, but it is also true that WordPress developers are working on improving the weak point of this CMS.
Core Web Vitals Signals
For example, the new PHP 8.0 is already coming out of the oven, with which it is expected to improve WordPress processing speed by approximately 40%.
