Google is planning a major update to its search ranking algorithm in May this year, which will massively overhaul the way it factors Page Experience elements into search rankings. In short, the ease with which people use your website is about to become even more important. Is your site slow? How about mobile-friendly? Depending on these factors, your website’s ranking could take a big hit come May.

Page experience is all about how a user is able to interact with a webpage – particularly how fast and easy-to-use it is. This upcoming Google update will be making the overall experience of your page just as important as keywords for ranking on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs).  So you need to know what parts of your site are letting you down (and fast!) so you can fix them before May!

What is Google’s main aim with this update?

Google is on a mission to ensure that people get the most helpful and enjoyable website experiences from their platform, and they’ve made no secret of this throughout the years. This new algorithm is designed to reward fast, easy-to-use websites. Google have already let us know this, as well as the three main areas they’re focusing on.

1. Loading Speed

This is specifically in relation to your home or loading page, and relates to the time it takes for all content elements to load fully.

2. Interactive Experience

Did you ever visit a page that took ages to action your request? Think of the time it took from your first click to the time when the browser began finally processing that interaction. It’s annoying, right? If a customer can’t get information from your site quickly, they’ll likely move on. Perhaps to your competitor! This is why Google decided to add interactivity to their algorithm.

3. Visual Stability

This facet focuses on preventing annoying and unexpected movement of page content. Things like movements in your page design, when different elements load. For example, have you got a noticeable page “shift” when a pop-up loads after the rest of your page? If you answered yes, you’ll likely fail this test.

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