{"id":3122540,"date":"2021-03-10T13:41:12","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/?p=3122540"},"modified":"2024-03-11T17:18:21","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T16:18:21","slug":"google-page-experience-update-2021","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/blog\/google-page-experience-update-2021\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Page Experience Update 2021: How to Prepare Your WordPress Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Google Page Experience update is a set of new SEO ranking signals that Google is planning to release in June 2021<\/strong>.<\/p>

If you want to maximize your website\u2019s chance of ranking at the top of Google\u2019s search results, it\u2019s essential to optimize your WordPress website for the new Page Experience update and be ready to take advantage of the changes in June 2021.<\/p>

As with any big change that Google makes to its search algorithm, many sites will move up in the rankings\u2026 but a lot of sites will also move down in the rankings.<\/p>

You want your WordPress site to fit into the \u201cup\u201d category (or at least the \u201cneutral\u201d category<\/em>), which is what this post is about.<\/p>

We\u2019ll start by introducing you to what the Page Experience update is, and the five new Google SEO signals that it incorporates. Then, we\u2019ll show you how to measure and improve your WordPress site\u2019s Page Experience metrics to prepare your site for the new Google ranking factors in June 2021.<\/p>

What\u2019s the Google Page Experience Update in 2021?<\/h2>

The Google Page Experience update is the latest SEO algorithm update rolling out in June 2021.<\/p>

The Page Experience ranking factor aims to prioritize websites that provide a good user experience to visitors, as measured through five key signals<\/strong>.<\/p>

That\u2019s the key \u2013 it\u2019s not <\/strong>about content (though the content is still very important<\/em>). Instead, it\u2019s about the user experience<\/strong> that your website offers to visitors, regardless of what it\u2019s about.<\/p>

This makes sense \u2013 if you click on a website in Google\u2019s search results, Google wants you to have a good user experience on that site in addition to <\/em>finding the content that you\u2019re interested in.<\/p>

Here is the reasoning directly from Google on user experience<\/a> and why they believe it\u2019s important to prioritize in the search results:<\/p>

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

Google has been planning these changes for a long time, first publicizing them in May 2020, a full year before the planned release date.<\/p>

Google has given webmasters a year to adjust for these changes is a pretty good signal that the update will be a large one. Google also wanted to give webmasters more time to plan because of the already volatile and stressful situation with the Coronavirus<\/em>.<\/p>

Let\u2019s talk about the five signals that Google wants you to optimize for.<\/p>

What Are the Five Signals in the New Page Experience Ranking Factor?<\/h2>

The Google Page Experience update will focus on five signals \u2013 some are brand new as ranking signals, while many of them have already been around in some form or another.<\/p>

Those five signals are:<\/p>

  1. Core Web Vitals<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0\u2013 these are a new set of three performance metrics that focus on how performance connects to user experience. There are three metrics \u2013\u00a0Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)<\/a>,\u00a0Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)<\/a>, and\u00a0First Input Delay (FID)<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n
  2. Mobile-friendliness<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 whether your site has issues with a mobile-friendly design, as flagged by the Google Mobile-Friendly Test tool or Google Search Console.<\/li>\n\n
  3. Safe browsing<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 whether your site has any malware issues, harmful downloads, deceptive content (e.g., phishing<\/em>), or other similar issues as flagged by Google Search Console.<\/li>\n\n
  4. HTTPS usage<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 whether your site has an SSL certificate and uses HTTPS.<\/li>\n\n
  5. No intrusive interstitials on mobile<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 whether your site displays intrusive popups\/interstitials to mobile users who are clicking through from Google search (AKA the mobile popup penalty, which <\/em>has been around since 2017<\/em><\/a>).<\/li><\/ol>

    Here\u2019s a graphic from Google that illustrates the five signals:<\/p>

    \"page
    The five Page Experience signals<\/figcaption><\/figure>

    Google has not stated what weight will be applied to each signal. We don\u2019t know if all five will be equally weighted or if some signals are more important than others. Because of that, you should plan to optimize for all five signals.<\/p>

    Page Experience vs. Relevance and Content: Which Is More Important?<\/h2>

    The Page Experience update focuses on the user experience of a page, not its content. However, that certainly doesn\u2019t mean that you can ignore content after June 2021. Quite the opposite.<\/p>

    Even after the Page Experience update rolls out, Google is still going to put more value on content and its relevance to a searcher\u2019s query when ranking websites.<\/p>

    For example, suppose Google has to choose between a site with very relevant content but not-great Page Experience signals and a site with less relevant content but great Page Experience signals. In that case, Google is still going to give priority to the relevant site first because the content is the most crucial determiner.<\/p>

    However, if Google sees two sites with equally relevant content, having superior Page Experience scores acts as the tiebreaker to push one site up and the other site down. That\u2019s why it\u2019s still very important to optimize your site for the Page Experience signals.<\/p>

    Here are Google\u2019s words<\/a> on balance between Page Experience vs. relevance (the emphasis is ours<\/em>):<\/p>

    \u201cWhile all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall<\/strong>, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn\u2019t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>

    Think of Page Experience as the tiebreaker to put you above similarly relevant sites in Google\u2019s search results, not something that can replace quality, relevant content.<\/p>

    How Will Google Measure the Page Experience Score?<\/h2>

    Google has made a point of releasing several tools and reports that you can use to assess your WordPress Page Experience scores.<\/p>

    The Page Experience Report<\/h3>

    In April 2021, Google Search Console released the Page Experience report that puts together the five signals and their performance on mobile. You’ll quickly have a complete overview of how your site is performing towards the new ranking factor.<\/p>

    As a first thing, you\u2019ll get the overall status of your site, plus the percentage of URLs with a good page experience:<\/p>

    \"The
    The Page Experience report – Search Console<\/figcaption><\/figure>


    Scrolling down, you\u2019ll get more information about each signal. By clicking on each tab, you\u2019ll go to the specific report and get specific insights to improve performance.<\/p>

    \"The
    The Page Experience signals – Search Console<\/figcaption><\/figure>


    What’s more, in the Search Performance section, you can also filter pages with good page experience and compare them to the other pages.<\/p>

    \"\"
    Good page experience filter – Search Console<\/figcaption><\/figure>


    Let\u2019s now go through the specific reports. You\u2019ll learn how to monitor and assess how your site is performing for each signal.<\/p>

    Core Web Vitals<\/h3>

    To measure how your site compares against the three Core Web Vitals metrics, you can use\u00a0Google\u2019s PageSpeed Insights testing tool<\/a>, which is\u00a0now based on Lighthouse<\/a>.<\/p>

    You\u2019ll always see times for Largest Contentful Paint and Cumulative Layout Shift in the Lab Data.<\/p>

    However, you\u2019ll only see the First Input Delay information in the Field Data, and only if your site receives enough traffic. The \u201cField Data\u201d is data from real human Chrome users, while the \u201cLab Data\u201d uses synthetic testing from Lighthouse.<\/p>

    If your site is eligible for Field Data, you\u2019ll also be able to see a range of times for LCP and CLS based on your real human visitors:<\/p>

    \"\"
    PageSpeed Insights Lab and Field Data<\/figcaption><\/figure>

    Note\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u2013 if your site doesn\u2019t have Field Data, you can use the Total Blocking Time metric <\/a>in the lab data as a rough proxy for First Input Delay. If you see a green time for Total Blocking Time, you can probably assume that your First Input Delay time meets Google\u2019s recommendations, too. Similarly, if you improve your Total Blocking Time, you\u2019ll likely improve your First Input Delay because the two measures correlate well.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

    Make sure to look at both the mobile and desktop results as your Core Web Vitals metrics will vary between the two, though the mobile scores are most important now that Google moved to mobile-first indexing in September 2020<\/a>.<\/p>

    Here are the scores that Google recommends for the three metrics:<\/p>

    \"Core
    Core Web Vitals scores<\/figcaption><\/figure>

    If you\u2019re in the \u201cgreen\u201d, you\u2019re set to jet. If you\u2019re in the yellow or red areas, we\u2019ll share some tips to improve in the next section of this post.<\/p>

    You can also use the Core Web Vitals<\/strong> report in Google Search Console to see specific URLs that need improvement across your entire site:<\/p>

    \"Core
    Core Web Vitals report in Search Console<\/figcaption><\/figure>

    Mobile-Friendliness<\/h3>

    To see if Google has detected any issues with mobile-friendliness on your site, you can use the Mobile Usability <\/strong>report in Google Search Console, which will flag specific issues on your site and the URLs on which they occur:<\/p>

    \"Mobile-friendliness
    Mobile-friendliness report in Search Console<\/figcaption><\/figure>

    In addition to this report, you can also use Google\u2019s standalone Mobile-Friendly Test tool<\/a>, which lets you test individual URLs one by one.<\/p>

    Safe Browsing<\/h3>

    To check for issues with safe browsing, you can use the Security issues<\/strong> report under Security & Manual Actions <\/strong>in Google Search Console:<\/p>

    \"Security
    Security issues in Search Console<\/figcaption><\/figure>

    You can also use Google\u2019s Safe Browsing site status check tool<\/a> to see if your site has been flagged.<\/p>

    HTTPS Usage<\/h3>

    You can test this one yourself \u2013 when you visit a page on your website, do you see a closed padlock in your browser address bar? If so, you\u2019ve passed this assessment. You can also view details and read that your connection is secure.<\/p>

    \"Connection
    Secure connection \u2013 Example<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

    Intrusive Interstitials<\/h3>

    There\u2019s no test for this per se. Instead, you\u2019ll just want to make sure that you\u2019re not displaying intrusive interstitials\/popups to mobile visitors who click through to your site from Google\u2019s search results.<\/p>

    Intrusive interstitials make the content less accessible, especially from mobile. They cover the majority of the screen. Thus, they provide a terrible user experience \u2013 what Google wants to avoid.<\/p>

    For instance, Google considers this type of popup to be intrusive:<\/p>

    \"Intrusive
    Intrusive interstitials \u2013 Example<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>

    How to Improve Your Google Page Experience Score for WordPress<\/h2>

    Now that you understand what the new Google SEO signals are and how Google measures\/assesses them let\u2019s get into the actionable part of how you can improve your WordPress Page Experience signals to set your site up for success in June 2021 and beyond.<\/p>

    Some of the new Page Experience signals are binary choices, so it\u2019s not necessarily a matter of \u201cimproving\u201d them but more making sure you\u2019re not violating them. The two examples are:<\/p>