Google’s major page experience update had only affected mobile end devices to date. But now, starting in spring 2022, the Core Web Vitals and similar will also become a factor for rankings on desktop and laptop computers. Companies should therefore be well prepared for this.
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What is behind the page experience
A positive page experience contributes to being as high up as possible on the search results list from Google’s search engine. It expresses in figures how users experience their visit to a website. These experiences are based on the interplay of several factors which are important during the interaction with a website.
Such factors include the website’s user-friendliness and security aspects, as well as Google’s Core Web Vitals. The latter are metrics which measure the loading time, the reaction speed and the visual stability of a website. For instance, interstitials, in other words automatic (ad) displays that appear during the loading of Internet sites, can have a negative impact on the page experience. All these signals flow into the page experience, but the weight of each has not yet been published by Google.
Roll-out for computers to be completed by March 2022
In the summer of 2021, Google began the roll-out of the page experience update for mobile end devices – a project that was completed at the start of September. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the Core Web Vitals and other aspects will become a factor for rankings on computers as well. The launch is slated for February and is planned to be completed by March. With a Search Console report taking this change into consideration, webmasters can determine how their offer performs in light of the new requirements.
To what extent the update to the algorithm will have on the ranking on computers is not known. However, the change for the mobile device update was within reasonable limits, as the page experience plays a rather moderate role compared to other ranking factors such as the relevance of the content and the quality of a website. This means that major traffic losses via Google normally do not result from the change. Sites providing a weak page experience can continue to rank well if they are especially relevant for searchers.
How to optimise the page experience
Even if the effects of the updates will not have any major impacts, it is still recommended that you optimise your own websites to be in line with Google’s page experience requirements. According to a survey from Searchmetrics from spring 2021, there is a lot of catching up to do. Back then, only a few websites in Germany met the requirements of the Core Web Vitals.
To do things better than the competition, webmasters should keep the comprehensive tips from Google in mind. They provide general information on how websites can be optimised in light of their user-friendliness. What’s more, Google offers some tools in the list for measuring the most significant Core Web Vitals as well as testing the security of the website.
