Google Completes Page Experience Update on Desktop Version

The SEO community has been waiting for SEO news and updates on the page experience update for desktop search results. Google finally confirmed that they have finished rolling the update, and it is now time to assess its impact on SEO for websites.

The update was released for desktop on 22 February, with a nine-day rollout that ended on 3 March.

The completion of the page experience mobile update, by contrast, took two and a half months.

As Google has announced the end of its desktop rollout, webmasters may now begin evaluating the impact of this update on their search rankings.

Evaluating the Effect of Google’s Desktop Page Experience Update

The entire SEO community was on the lookout for SEO industry news and updates to see if there would be positive or negative fluctuations in Google’s desktop search rankings after 3 March, which can be attributed to the page experience update from the search engine company.

To find out if that’s the case, Google’s tools may be used to evaluate a site’s page experience rating.

The Google Search Console has a report devoted to assessing desktop versions of websites’ Page Experience elements.

SEOs can use the Search Console report to analyse how their websites are affected by Google’s desktop page experience update.

If the report indicates that most of a website’s pages are in yellow or red, any dip in rankings from 3 March can be attributed to the page experience update.

If a website reveals low page experience scores, the next step is to figure out why by examining relevant factors separately.

Factors Involved in the Google Update on Desktop Page Experience

The page experience update by Google for desktop search includes many of the same ranking criteria as the algorithm introduced for mobile search last year.

The following are some of the most important page experience ranking criteria:

• Core Web Vitals (LCP + CLS + FID)
• HTTPS Security
• Absence of intrusive interstitials

Websites that do not comply with any of the above criteria will not receive a page experience ranking boost on desktop.

Do note, though, that a drop in rankings does not necessarily signal that a website has been penalised for failing to meet Google’s page experience standards.

When Google detects sites that match its criteria, it may simply put them higher in the search results than others that do not.

This shows that increasing a website’s experience score may assist users in improving their page’s ranked positions and staying competitive.

This makes it simple to figure out which part of the page experience update to concentrate on.

• Is your website secure (HTTPS)? If this is the case, you can rule it out.
• Do you have invasive advertisements on your website? If the answer is no, you may rule this out.
• Does your website meet the Core Web Vitals thresholds? If you’re not sure, you’ll have to put it to the test.

Google’s Core Web Vitals report on Search Console tracks how your sites perform for each indicator using real-world data.

The Google Analytics Core Web Vitals tool integrates numerous other Google tools, including Lighthouse, Chrome Developer Tools, and PageSpeed Insights. There’s even a Chrome browser add-on that allows users to check Core Web Vitals on a page-per-page basis. Site owners and SEOs can use those tools to see which pages need further optimisation to meet Google’s page experience standards.

Measuring Core Web Vitals

When optimising for user experience, Google has defined a set of performance indicators website owners should pay attention to.

Google intends to provide coherent guidance for high-quality signals, which Google says are crucial to delivering a great online experience.

Google emphasises the Core Web Vitals over other criteria because they are crucial to all web interactions.

Users’ expectations for online experiences vary depending on the site and context, but certain expectations stay the same regardless of where they are on the web.

Google’s Core web vitals are the standards that all websites should strive to satisfy.

Google identifies the following as the core user experience requirements: visual stability, loading, and interactivity.

How to Measure User Experience With Core Web Vitals

These Google Analytics metrics can be used to evaluate the quality of a website’s user experience:

Largest Contentful Paint: The amount of time it takes for the core content of a website to load. An LCP metric should be less than or comparable to 2.5 seconds.

First Input Delay: The time it takes for a page to become interactive. An ideal measurement is less than or equal to 100 ms.

Cumulative Layout Shift: The degree of visual page content’s layout change. A good measurement is less than or equal to 0.1.

Core Web Vitals measurement capabilities are now available in several existing Google tools.

Tools used to assess Google’s Core Web Vitals:

• Chrome DevTools – The latest Chrome DevTools update includes a fix for visual instability issues that can cause Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
• Chrome UX Report – The Chrome UX report is a public dataset that shows the real user experience data on millions of websites. It compiles this data into a report that measures real-world data.
• Lighthouse – Lighthouse just had an updated (v6.0), including additional audits, a newly composed performance rating, and new metrics affecting SEO performance.
• PageSpeed Insights – The report’s section on Site Audit is now complete, and the Lighthouse v6.0 upgrade has been utilised by Google PageSpeed Insights to measure Core Web Vitals in the lab and field parts of the report.
• Search Console – Google’s Search Console assists website owners in evaluating pages across their entire website.
• Web Vitals Extension – This new extension measures the three core Web Vitals metrics in real-time and is now available from the Chrome Web Store.

Improve your Website’s Google Page Experience with Position1SEO

Google Page Experience plays a significant role in website rankings. Site owners can focus on optimising their website for Google Page Experience and improving their rankings by hiring the team at position1seo.co.uk.

We at Position1SEO have a team of specialists who stay up-to-date with SEO news and updates and can deal with all things related to website optimisation, such as improving your site’s page experience. We make sure your website complies with the Google page experience update so that you can reach the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) and gain an edge over your competitors.

Having a high Google page experience ranking is essential for any business looking to grow online. Contact us today for more information on our SEO services.

Don’t hesitate to contact us at jason@position1seo.com or call us on 0141 404 7515 for additional information on our services.