Back in November of 2020 Google made an announcement about a page experience ranking change that will go live sometime this year. This announcement was known as a “page experience update” and it has the aim of helping developers, SEO’s and website owners improve their on page experience for the user. In April, this update has arrived – here are the key features you will need to know about this update and what it means for you and your website.
What Is In The April 2021 Announcement
A major part of the page experience update for Search Console is the addition of what is being called “page experience signals”, including three Core Web Vitals metrics; Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). The Largest Contentful Paint or LCP is a metric for how long it takes a page to load for the user; how long it takes to load the majority of content on a page. The First Input Delay measures the time it takes for a user to actually interact with the page. CLS refers to how stable a page is when it loads, and whether it is shaky at all when loading. For further information on these new metrics, Google has produced a Core Web Vitals and Page Experience FAQ.
Additionally, the Top Stories carousel feature in the search results page will now include all news information and content, providing it meets with the standards laid out by Google News policies. This will also mean that using the AMP format isn’t needed and any page will now be eligible to appear for the Top Stories carousel. The Google News app will also have similar updates apply to it at a later date. Because of this update, the AMP badge icon will no longer appear to indicate AMP content. In the update report, Google states that these AMP changes and more can be expected to come in a roll out in June.
New Page Experience Report In Search Console
The existing Core Web Vitals report will be combined with other page experience reporting information such as; HTTPS security, safe browsing status, and mobile friendliness. Google says in the announcement that the goal of this new combined system will be to provide web masters with more actionable insights. Additional metrics, such as the number of good and poor quality URLs your website has, will also be included. As well as metrics like your websites search impressions over time, giving you the opportunity to quickly review the performance of the website over a set period of time. Alongside the Page Experience Report, Google has also launched an update for the Search Performance report. This new update will allow you to filter pages and compare those with good page experience to those with poorer performing pages.
When Will Updates Happen
These updates will be a part of the parking systems starting in mid-June of this year and will continue to be rolled out until the end of August, with the full system being implemented during that time. Google states that during this time of updates, there shouldn’t be any large changes to current rankings, but it is also doing this slower rollout style to tackle any unexpected issues that arise as part of the process. We will be watching closely as these updates roll out over the coming months and review how to best utilise the new tools available to us through Google Search Console.
Get In Touch
For more information about any recently updates to Google services, or if you want to know if your website has been impacted by a recent update, get in touch with our team today via email at hello@427marketing.co.uk or call us on 01323 400010.