Menu
Menu
Prepare your site, stay competitive in the SERPs, and beat your competition with a FREE User Experience Site Audit from Local Brand Advisor! Our experienced team will provide an audit, as well as roadmap of how to fix your page experience issues.
You must understand the complexity of the Page Experience Update in order to apply it to your site. Let the experts at Local Brand Advisor walk you through the update and what metrics will be measured.
Since May 2020, there have been worries that page experience metrics would become direct ranking factors. After all, you must rank well in order to maximize the success of your franchise sites. Then, in November, Google announced, “page experience signals in ranking will roll out in May 2021.”
Algorithms will take into account page experience when ranking a site, but will this update hurt your search rankings?
The answer depends on you. You must evaluate your site and work to optimize it now that we know page experience will directly affect rankings. We recommend beginning this process as early as possible to give yourself time.
If you don’t optimize your site for these new metrics, your rankings could be negatively impacted. However, it’s not as simple as measuring a single metric. There are many factors.
The Page Experience Update is an upcoming Google Search update that will introduce new ranking signals related to page experience. The major update will utilize a combination of new and existing signals to measure page experience, as well as test experience indicators on SERPs. To quantify page experience, Google announced they will, “combine Core Web Vitals with existing search signals including mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines.”
The Core Web Vitals are new site performance signals Google will take into account when judging the user experience of your site. While these data pieces are already measured, they are not currently direct ranking factors. Performance will be categorized into "Good (pass)," "Needs Improvement," or "Fail," and you can always improve your scores.
See the visual representation of how these metrics will intersect.
Largest Contentful Paint
(time till largest files rendered)
Cumulative Layout Shifts
(Stability of Content as Loads)
First Input Delay
(time till responsive to clicks & scroll)
This culmination of signals helps the algorithm to understand how users perceive page experience, then rank each site accordingly. The update also simplifies a complex set of data points to provide easier metrics to understand and track.
Google believes focusing on users’ interactions with a site and refining current experience ranking factors will improve web experiences across different browsers and devices, as well as facilitate a more engaged audience. Less friction when loading and navigating a site creates a more enjoyable experience. It’s beneficial for everyone!
In addition to the newest ranking factors, Google will be testing a visual indicator in the SERPs for websites with exceptional page experience. While this feature is only in testing, it is logical to assume this indicator will contribute to higher click through rates (CTR) as users are attracted to the best experience possible.
Increase your chances of this indicator being shown for your site by optimizing your site early!
While this ranking update is sure to shake up the SERPs, there is a huge opportunity to leverage. Many franchise owners will be unaware of this massive update until their rankings drop. This will leave them playing catch up.
As they’re trying to make up the rankings they lost, you could be dominating the SERPs because you were prepared for the update. Your site could see massive gains and potentially overtake high competition keywords, especially if your high-ranking competitors are penalized for bad page experiences.
Site owners and franchise owners know the added ranking factor is coming and need to be prepared.
But how can you accurately identify opportunities for improvement?
You can use the Core Web Vitals Report in Google Search Console or sift through information in Page Speed Insights and Lighthouse, but that requires a significant amount of time. It can also be difficult to determine which metrics should be addressed on your site.
That’s where our expertise comes in handy.
Local Brand Advisor provides a free User Experience Site Audit to determine the quality of experience users have on your site.
This analysis will evaluate each of the Core Web Vitals and existing experience signals to offer a holistic look at your site. But that’s not all...
We don’t just tell you what’s wrong. We will also include a roadmap of how to fix the issues discovered, so you can put the data into action.
By taking a proactive approach you protect your site against ranking fluctuations and potentially increase your traffic, return visitors and overall usability. Currently, the Page Experience Update is set to launch in May 2021, so you have time to evaluate and improve your site before the launch.
The announcement regarding page experience signals lit a fire under many website owners, leading to a 70% increase of Lighthouse & Page Speed Insight usage, so many site owners are taking action early. Are you?
If you are not, your site could have a bad page experience or low metrics and you don’t even know. Once the update is live, this will negatively impact your rankings. When rankings dip, you will lose traffic, online visibility and brand exposure.
Don’t let that happen to your franchise sites. Reach out to Local Brand Advisor’s experts for help.
Ready to get more leads and customers?
Schedule Your Free Strategy Session Now!
© 2024 — Local Brand Advisor. All rights reserved.
Send Us Your Application!
