It looks like Google wishes to implement new algorithm changes at the drop of a hat. Google’s new algorithm is coming soon, it absolutely was restored a bit in 2020 because of the pandemic, but it'll hit sometime in 2021.

What does this actually mean? The new page experience algorithm is Google’s try and improves the user experience for everybody. The new algorithm may be a big shift from keywords, content, and ranking pages by their relevance, but taking the texture and appearance of the website into consideration.

All in all, it is sensible that this transformation is incoming. what number of websites does one visit that looks absolutely terrible except for some odd reason, rank above you, or seems to try and do really well? Don’t get us wrong, content and technical SEO will still have an area, but the new algorithm will help marry up the content with design.

What Is It?

From the horse’s mouth:

“The page experience signal measures aspects of how users perceive the experience of interacting with an internet page. Optimizing these factors makes the net more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces and helps sites evolve towards mobile user expectations. We believe this may contribute to business success online as users grow more engaged and may transact with less friction.” – Google Developers.

What Does It Mean?

Well, to place it simply, Google wants websites that have a good user experience to be at the highest of the searches. You’ll know a number of the sites that fall foul of this in your industry, websites that for a few crazy reasons rank more than you, but are just terrible to use. Well, Google wants to rectify this. They only want the most effective at the highest, from a content point of view, and a usability standpoint. Take the below example, due to the horrible little pop-up the user accidentally submits their order; it’s not their fault; it's the website's fault. The way it's been built doesn’t take the user journey into the situation; it does as it’s told and pops the pop-up right within the wrong place at the incorrect time.

Now we all know what you’re thinking, it doesn’t seem much, but it doesn’t really end there. Google is taking your whole website into play when it ranks for user experience. How it works on mobile, tablets, and different screen sizes – if a user hits your site on mobile are they getting a worse experience than on a desktop? these items all acquire play when evaluating user experience.

Core Web Vitals

At BridgeWeb, we’ve been banging the drum on HTTPS, mobile-first and safe browsing for years. With the introduction of the page experience algorithm, Google will raise its “Core Web Vitals”. Things like loading, interactivity, visual stability will all directly affect the search signals for page experience.

Google is rolling out changes to Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights to assist us all better understand elements that require work. Google Search Console also provides a fanatical report back to facilitate your understanding of opportunities for improvement.

Loading: LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

LCP might sound like Google has strung three random words together, but it's actually the score of how quickly the most important element on your page takes to load. this might be a picture or a video. It really matters when loading your content that your website loads it quickly. Now you would possibly think that your current website is super-fast because it loads everything anytime without fail for you. However, it might help if you considered that your users won't have the web speed you are doing or maybe viewing your website via their mobile data. Google’s benchmark for a decent LCP timer is under 2.5 seconds, and if your website loads large content slower than 4 seconds, you'll definitely “need improvement” during this area.

Interactivity: FID (First Input Delay)

Another Google benchmark that you simply must concentrate on. FID measures the delay when a user interacts with the part on your website and therefore the browser responding to the action. Google wants links to retort in a rapid both as normal text links and on buttons. We’ve all been there, pressing buttons that don’t respond over and another time until something happens. Well, now Google wants to form sure that you’re taking it seriously and confirm your websites have a score of under 100ms (good). If you discover yourself with a score above 300 ms is poor, so you’ll really want to figure out a number of the problems on FID as a matter of urgency.

Visual Stability: CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

As mentioned above with the video example, Google now wants layouts of internet sites to help users and their journey. Layout shifts are detrimental to your site. Users can click things they didn’t mean to accidentally, which isn’t actually their fault. Who wants to go to an internet site where you've got to “jiggle” things around to try to do simple browsing and tasks? Google says that a CLS score of 0.1 is good, while anything about 0.25 is poor.

Pop-Ups

Something that lots of folks will agree on is intrusive pop-ups on websites. We’re not talking about the helpful ones with important company updates. We are talking about ones that pop up everywhere the place with discount offers and advertisements. These pop-ups distract from the user experience, and per se, Google is clamping down on sites with more pop-ups than a dodgy e-Bay knock-off.

Mobile Experience

Can you believe that it's nearly 6 years since Google started penalizing websites for not optimizing for mobile? Over the last 6 years, designers have scrambled to develop their websites mobile-first, prioritizing smartphones and tablets. Google wants users to own an honest experience on whatever device they're browsing on.

HTTPS

Having a secure site in 2021 isn't only important to you, but it's also essential to Google. Now is the time to form sure you've got an SSL, especially if you purchase online or fear the results.

When Will This Happen?

As with many Google updates, we don’t get a particular time and date when Google will roll this out. thanks to the pandemic, things are taking a bit longer, and while there isn’t a particular date, rankings will start to be affected in 2021.

How Big is that this Update?

Again, we don’t actually know. Google stated that as they're continuing to figure and identifying measurements, they're looking to include signals each year. Google has confirmed that quality content will always help websites rank highly. Take into the very fact that the BERT update affected 1 in 10 searches; this new update could hit more sites.

What you'll be able to Do

The current guidance is to start out working to enhance your website now and not stay up for things to any or all of a sudden drop off a cliff. you ought to detain mind that while you're looking to enhance your website for this update, you ought to always be watching ways to boost your website for users regardless.

Optimize Page Speed

Hit up Google PageSpeed Insights to test out your current score for mobile and desktop. this can provide you with scores for FCP, LCP, FID, CLS and provides you an overall score for your website.

If your website isn’t amazing there are some stuff you can do to improve:

-Optimize your images – JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics
-Utilize content distribution networks to load elements of your website independently, reducing server lag
-confirm you leverage your browser caching so data-heavy content loads quickly for returning visitors.
-Minify CSS, HTML, and Javascript by optimizing your code
-Enable compression to cut back the dimensions of the above
-If you've got access to your server, look to enhance the server interval by reducing bottlenecks.

Responsive Design & Mobile Friendly

We’ve been banging the drum for responsive design and mobile-friendly responsive designs for years now, and you’ll find just about every modern BridgeWeb design to feature this functionality. you must confirm that:

-Your type is readable on mobile devices and desktops.
-Your images and videos are responsive.
-Your layout has all media queries added.
-You’ve added HTML document meta tags.

Utilize Clear Headings

Google has been using the heading tag system since forever and uses it to see what content is headings from H1 to H6. H1 is that the heading of your page than on. These headings are critical as they not only tell users about the content on the page but also help the page from an SEO point of view. it might help if you worked through your pages to create sure they need a decent heading system from H1 downwards.

Fix Dead Pages

The last item you would like is someone clicking an old link or finding your site via groundwork which results in a dead page, i.e. a 404. Like you, Google doesn’t like these errors.

Search Console is great to search out any dead pages you may have. you'll be able to then grab an inventory and fix the errors one at a time.

What Can BridgeWeb Do?

Basically, it depends on how old your website is.

If your website is pretty new, slick, and up-to-date, not much will must be rectified. we are able to provide it a fast audit and there may be some page loading and speed things to appear at, but nothing major!

However, if your website is 3-5 years old, you’re likely to wish some development work to urge your website up to scratch still as a front-end refresh.

If your website is older than 5 years, it might be an excellent time to appear at a {brand new} one with a brand new design and more up so far Content Management System, yet as incorporating any new features and functionality you will require.