The Google Page Experience Update is the latest Google algorithm change that will have a huge effect on your website traffic when it’s rolled out in May this year.
Due to coronavirus, Google announced the new algorithm way back in 2020 to give businesses enough time to prepare for the changes.
So, what is The Google Page Experience Update?
In its most simplest term, user-friendly websites will rank higher than sites that aren’t user-friendly following the update.
Google is looking for how usable a website is and the purpose of the update is to ensure sites that users hate aren’t ranking at the top.
Google explain this as:
“The page experience signal measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page. Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile.
“We believe this will contribute to business success on the web as users grow more engaged and can transact with less friction.”
Why is this important for my business website?
Following the rolling out of Google’s algorithm update in this year, your website could be penalised if it offers an experience that isn’t user-friendly. If you don’t take action to improve your website’s user experience, you will see traffic plummet as your ranking goes down.
We’ve outlined 4 simple ways you can get prepared for the update today and improve customer experience before it’s too late.
1) Optimise your speed and reduce errors
Heads up – this is the main factor of Google’s Page Experience Update.
In short: the faster your website loads, the better experience your users are going to have. Ideally your website’s load time for both desktop and mobile will be under 1 second, but under 3 seconds is still acceptable.
If your website is slow to load, you risk time-poor users clicking off and your bounce rate increasing. Something that will be a red flag for Google.
The new update places a focus on a site’s technical health and metrics to measure the user experience. This includes looking at how quickly page content loads, how quickly a browser responds to user input, and how stable the content is as it loads in the browser.
Although this does sound technical, don’t worry, we’re here to break it down and help support you.
2) Compare your website experience to competitors
You may think your website is fantastic, but is it really satisfying user intent? The Google Page Experience Update could rank your competitors’ websites higher than yours, if they offer a better user experience. You’ll want to analyse your top competition and consider how their user experience compares to yours.
Confused where to start? We can help. Our detailed website audits can benchmark your website against competitors, suggesting ways to improve user experience across your site.
3) Analyse your website with an audit
As you may not have serious user experience issues on every page, it can be difficult to pinpoint exactly why your website might be penalised following Google’s algorithm update.
At Rawww, as part of our website audit we can help you identify areas on your website that need improving from a usability perspective.
Implement user experience changes with design and creativity
Following a website audit, you’ll be able to see where improvements need to be made on your website to meet Google’s expectations.
Pairing up with a design studio ensures any user experience changes can be efficiently implemented into your website design to help prevent any penalising.
How will I know if my user experience updates work?
When the Page Experience update goes live, Google has said it will test various ways to display a “visual indicator” in the search results that will inform a user if a specific search result is expected to have a great experience.
According to Google, you may see these icons and labels that identify pages that meet all of the page experience criteria in the search results soon.
Improve usability and watch traffic grow
The key takeaway from Google’s algorithm update is that the focus will be on brands who provide the best possible experience for a user. Those who decide not to take action will see the impact this has on their website, when competitors who have implemented changes begin to rank higher as time goes by.
Find out how to improve your website’s user experience today with a website audit to ensure your website is inline with the updated algorithm or discover other ways we can help improve customer’s experience with your brand.
