4 ways to optimize for updating your Google page experience

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If you’ve got the pulse of Google’s pulse and its algorithm changes, you’ve probably seen a lot of news about the Page Experience update over the past year.

The good news? The update is finally here!

If you haven’t been able to optimize Page Experience metrics yet and your competitors have, you may find that they are enjoying a ranking boost that you are missing out on.

In this column, you will learn about three key priority areas that will help you prepare for the Google Page Experience update, as well as many other issues to have on your to-do list.

1. Work on your loading speed

The first of Google’s CWVs is the largest contentful paint (LCP), which refers to the largest and most important content on a web page.

This metric will determine how quickly your page displays its most important content, so users can see it.

There are several ways to optimize for LCP. One thing you can do is optimize your server, as slow response times can sometimes be linked to slow servers.

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Speeding up a server can result in some performance guidance being made so that the server displays a static page when requested rather than creating the page every time someone clicks on it.

Other web page components that can slow LCP loading include images, videos, and block-level elements with text capabilities.

If these elements on your pages are above the fold, the slower they load, the slower your LCP is.

To fix these issues, you’ll need to compress your images and text files, cache certain assets, and preload some of your items.

2. Work on your interactivity

The second CWV cis entry delay (FID). This is the time it takes for users to be able to interact with an item they clicked on, such as a link or button.

In Google’s eyes, your FID should aim to be less than 100 milliseconds. But let’s talk about what it means.

Readers are no doubt familiar with web pages that make them wait forever after clicking on an item to go to a new page, edit a shopping cart, and the like.

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Well, that’s not good for users. But why is this happening?

It is mainly because the browser is too busy with other tasks, such as parsing and running a heavy JavaScript file.

Now, we want to focus primarily on users’ first interactions with a web page, i.e. how long it takes to load.

Just like when meeting someone new, first impressions matter. If users know from the start that your site is slower than a snail, they will likely leave and not come back.

But a strong first impression, like on a page that loads quickly, will go a long way in increasing user engagement with that page in general.

This is why FID is such an important metric.

How do you fix it? It will depend on your specific website.

Use tools like PageSpeed ​​Insights to see how you are doing and where you can improve.

This is serious web developer stuff. We recommend that you split lengthy tasks, minimize JavaScript, and prioritize loading scripts so that the most important elements are available to users first.

3. Work on your layout shift

Finally, we have the third CWV, cumulative layout shift (CLS). It is a measure of how much the layout of your web page content moves during the page load.

You have probably encountered this problem too.

You’re waiting for a page to fully load and go and click on something only to find that another element has loaded onto the page and thus pushed the desired element in another direction.

As a result, you clicked on something you didn’t want, like an ad or even a “Submit order” button.

This makes the user experience negative which is why CLS is so important that it is considered a core element of the page experience.

How can this problem be solved to take advantage of the ranking increase that CWVs can provide?

You need a CLS score of 0.1 to “pass” the Google test. This is the most that Google wants to see.

Higher, and your web pages will likely shift a bit. Google considers a score of 0.25 to be poor.

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If you are using a WordPress site, you will likely notice that the following are causing your CLS:

Dimensional images and videos. Dimensionless ads and other embedded objects. Animations and other dynamic content. Flashes of text without style.

The CLS fix mainly applies to mobile devices, as Google prioritizes mobile devices, but also because mobile devices have weaker processors and smaller viewports.

What will you need to do to delete that layout? It depends on what’s causing it, but if we take two examples from above:

Browsers won’t know how to space dimensionless images and videos, which means the areas they’re in will likely change as a page loads. You can block it by adding specific dimensions to your images and videos. So when it comes to unstyled text flashes, you’ll need to preload your fonts. This tells browsers to load your fonts as a priority – in the first significant paint. If so, you won’t have any jarring changes that will cause cumulative layout shifts.

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4. Other elements of the page experience to keep in mind

Of course, Core Web Vitals aren’t the only things you need to study to optimize your site for Page Experience update.

Get mobile usability.

Google will now judge each site based on its compatibility with mobile devices, particularly with regards to issues like small text size and the use of Flash media, which today’s mobile devices tend not to support.

There is also the issue of the Page Experience report in Google Search Console.

This is a breakdown of your site’s performance for page experience refresh, but what about all those site owners who say they don’t see any data?

Google has confirmed that a blank report simply means there isn’t enough conclusive data to tell one way or another how your site is doing.

Even if you have decent traffic, the answer is likely that you just need more traffic – and that traffic generates relevant data – if you want the report to be compiled.

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Google wants to see a good user experience not only in organic content but also in advertising. Check and make sure the ads on your site are not interrupting or distracting.

And don’t forget, your site has to be secure if you want to do well with the Page Experience update.

Insecure HTTP no longer cuts it. Users need to know that their data is safe with you on your site, and Google needs to know too.

The page experience update is here, so get moving

There’s a lot to manage when it comes to your Core Web Vitals and page experience, but at the end of the day, it’s all about providing the best possible user experience.

If you haven’t yet taken the time to check and optimize these elements, we recommend that you do so as soon as possible.

But don’t panic. You will not be algorithmically penalized for not aligning with all CWV and Page Experience elements.

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This update is something of a tiebreaker, according to Google. If all other things are considered the same, then offering a better experience as determined by the above metrics could give you an edge.

And if you see the rankings drop, it’s not because you are being punished. It could be that your direct competitors prioritize these optimizations and you don’t.

This is an incentive to get moving!

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