Google Page Experience Update – Coming Next Year

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Google Page Experience Update – Coming Next Year

Coming year all webpages will be ranked by Google based new ranking algorithm depending on the interaction and experience that the user has on respective pages. This upcoming update termed as Google Page Experience was recently announced by the search engine giant, and scheduled to become effective sometime in 2021.

The major pointers of this Google update culminate into two words, ‘page experience’. If Google thinks that the website visitors are having a poor experience, then it will directly pull down the page rankings. However, the update has been pre-announced as Google has decided to give the SEO agencies and the digital marketers a notice of six months at least. It will allow all to prepare and make necessary modifications to the website before the update ultimately goes live.

About Page Experience     

Page Experience compiles the metrics that help in understanding the website users’ perception of their experience on a particular web page. It is comprised of several existing Google page ranking and searches ranking parameters such as:

  • Page speed update
  • Mobile-friendly update
  • Intrusive interstitials penalty
  • HTTPS ranking boost
  • Safe browsing penalty

Along with that the page update also takes into consideration the layout shifts in a page. The Core Web Vitals is the highlight of this new page experience update. It comprises of:

  1. Loading – Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
  2. Interactivity – First Input Delay (FDI)
  3. Visual Stability – Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

The LCP or page loading experience is considered optimal if it stays within 2.5 seconds, during initial page loading. FID measures the interactivity of the page, which is an idea when it is less than 100 milliseconds. While traces of the above-mentioned are already existent within the Google page ranking algorithm, the CLS or Cumulative Layout Shift is the brand-new addition that determines the visual stability of the page. A page with good CLS is measured less than 0.1.

According to Google, the Cumulative Layout Shift is a very essential user-oriented metric that is highly effective in measuring visual stability. The metric quantifies the number of times a user experiences layout shifts unexpectedly. Webpage with a low CLS ensures good user interaction and experience.

Hence, professionals at any SEO agency while framing and designing the web page need to make sure that they do not have too many elements on the page that jump around causing a distraction to the user. That will lose them brownie points with Google. At least after the new algorithm becomes effective in 2021. The new update is presumably going to eliminate the requirement of AMP.

In the case of mobile web pages, the top stories will be featured on the non-AMP pages. Unlike before, instead of AMP, the Google Page Experience will have a major role to play in the selection of the top stories on search engines.

Although the update announcement is getting significant hype, SEO agency professionals and digital marketers are not expecting much of a shift with the new metric as Google keeps stressing on the relevance of the content. The search engine giant has said, that pages with good quality content will be able to rank well even with bad page experience scores.

On a concluding note, it is expected that the Google Page Experience, might not bring much change in the existing algorithm, but it will give websites a chance to improve their presentation and performance on the search engine.