If you own a website, it's good to know that August 2021 was the month the search giant changed forever. The update of the Google page experience was launched for mobile devices, taking a lot of people by surprise and causing a race after the necessary improvements. Because now this ranking factor has been extended to desktop as well and it is important that you stay inside!
An analysis of 5 million desktop and mobile pages before the update found that the average time a site takes to load on the mobile phone is 27.3 seconds. According to John Mueller, senior trends analyst for Google webmasters, the best practice is to load your site in up to 2 to 3 seconds. With an average upload time of 27.3 seconds on the phone, the sites were nowhere near ready.
Sites that have not been optimized for Google Page Experience have lost traffic and sales. Google has announced that the page experience update is reaching desktop devices from February 2022. Once again, the sites will need optimization. The average time of loading desktop sites (computers and notebooks) is 10.3 seconds. Still far from the two to three seconds recommended by Google.
Factors such as loading speed, good mobile responsiveness and safe navigation are part of the goals of a good SEO strategy for a long time. But with Google updates, the User Experience (UX) is a new ranking factor and is no longer fundamental to the user only, but it also becomes crucial to algorithms.
See also:
- Gastronomy and Culture: A Meeting That Transcends Tastes
- Forget the “123456”: How a Password Manager Can Simplify Your Digital Life (and Avoid Head Pain)
- Nationalvox is honored by ALESC for its 20 years of innovation in digital marketing
- NVX 20 years: A history of innovation, partnership and success in digital
- Digital Transformation in Cuiabá Companies: Benefits and Challenges
- Social media trends for 2024: platforms that are shaping digital marketing
- The Power of Google Evaluations: How to Improve Your Business’s Reputation
- 7 content to convert to funnel fund with real estate marketing
- Enhance your sales with the power of WhatsApp Marketing
- The new era of email marketing: how to stand out in the inbox
What's the point of that?
Ranking experience on websites evaluates how consumers feel about their interaction with a web page. The web becomes more enjoyable for users on all browsers and surfaces when these features are taken into consideration.
It helps websites adapt to meet the expectations of users on mobile devices and starts to be worth it on desktops as well. As people become more engaged and transactions become more digital, it is believed to contribute to business success.
The SEO Conversion platform listed the main items to be taken into account:
- Loading time to fill in the largest content of the page, image or text (below 2.5 seconds);
- Responsiveness of the page, i.e. response time for user actions (below 100 milliseconds)
- Avoid items that “jump” or change their position on the page;
- Use of HTTPS protocol (it was already important and now it gets even more);
- absence of intrusive announcements;
Evaluate the performance of the experience rating factors on your website page using the fPageSpeed Insights Google, to apply the necessary and appropriate improvements.
How to prepare for Google Page Experience on the desktop
The same three metrics of Core Web Vitals and its associated limits now apply to desktop rating. The report tracks the quality of a site's page experience based on these metrics and the impact on the organic search channel and identifies opportunities at the URL level to improve the experience of the page where problems are encountered.
Understand each of them:
LCP (largest contentful paint) or loading performance
This metric monitors the time it takes for the content of the page to be visible for the first time. The excellent user experience starts in a two-second or less LCP.
Sites with a slow LCP can be improved by making the following adjustments:
- Increase the speed of server response times.
- Avoid any non-critical JavaScript and CSS.
- Optimize elements with many features that affect loading time.
How to Improve FID (first input delay) or interactivity of your website
The delay of the first entry is a metric used by Google's Core Web Vitals to measure the time a page takes to respond when someone clicks on the page. Google's web.dev recommends that a site's FID be loaded in 100 milliseconds or less.
Heavy JavaScript is the most common problem for websites with slow FID. When your website browser is busy loading JavaScript, it cannot respond to user interactions, causing a negative browsing experience.
Help the browser load JavaScript faster to improve FID:
- Use code division to split long JavaScript execution tasks.
- Optimize the page's interaction readiness.
Eyes on the visual stability of the site or CLS (cumulative layout shift)
The cumulative layout change is a metric used by Google's Core Web Vitals to measure the visual stability of a page when someone clicks on it. For example, when someone clicks on a link in the navigation bar, the content may change unexpectedly before loading the new page. The ideal CLS loading time is 0.1 seconds or less.
Problems on the site are the most common causes of CLS when visiting pages, with cause number 1 being the ads and images without dimensions. Use wide and high attributes for your images and videos. Using these attributes ensures that the browser can allocate the space needed during the image loading.
Eliminate CLS when using ads following some practices:
- Save space for the ad site.
- Be careful when placing non-adherent ads at the top of the view window.
- Avoid collecting the space reserved when the ad location is visible by the placeholder.
- Use historical data to place the most likely size for the ad location.
- Remove as many size as possible for the ad.
Downloading and rendering web fonts can also cause a layout change. Try using Feed loading API to reduce the time of acquisition of sources and minimize this occurrence.
How to Improve HTTPS Security on Your Website
Safe sites are important to protect users from a negative experience. For this reason, Google has made HTTPS security a ranking factor for updating the page experience. Install an SSL certificate for HTTPS security to protect the user experience of your website.
SSL makes your site have a green lock on the browser bar, which ensures that communication between your site and the computer you are accessing is safe. This certificate adds an extra level of protection by ensuring secure data sharing, which is encrypted.
Keep all your software up to date. This may sound simple, but it makes a big difference. Many software updates are specifically carried out to reduce security vulnerabilities. Even if these updates seem repetitive, don't delay them.
Check regularly for updates in plugins, CMSs (such as WordPress), e-commerce software you use and any other system related to the operation of your website.
How to make a site less intrusive
Anything that appears on the screen preventing the user from using the site is an intrusive interstitial. For example, a call to action to participate in an email list or banner ad.
And attention: Google considers intrusive interstitials a negative experience for users. Interstitial removal can increase your ratings and traffic on Google.
Search Console Tools at any time
Google will update the Google Search Console tools and reports to help website owners prepare for this update.
“ We are also planning to help website owners understand the performance of their desktop pages in relation to the page experience using a Search Console report that will be released before the desktop becomes a rating sign,” Google said. So, wait for these new tools and reports to be released at any time.
Conclusion
It is no trouble to recall that well-known (and clever) marketing phrase, that “content is king”. Even with the updates required for Google Page Experience desktop, good and relevant content remains a very important factor.
Try to create good content on your pages, aligned with well-defined SEO strategies, such as those I cited in this article. If your company or business still does not pay attention to this, make sure that the competition is trying to improve and apply the updates.
As Google introduces updating the page experience to desktop devices from February to March 2022, your website will be better prepared following these recommended practices.
Remember, sites that don't prepare stay behind during a Google update. Do not risk your brand's traffic and revenue, failing to engage in this new update.
If you walk without time or arm to put these actions into practice, seek professional help with specialized agency such as National Vox. We have 17 years of digital expertise focused on strategy, design and web development.
