December, 2020

What is Page Experience? A Core (Google Ranking Factor for 2021)

What is Page Experience:

Page Experience is an SEO-specific term for a new metric being rolled out in 2021 by Google to measure the usability of a website, from a public perspective. It focuses on the user experience and how to optimize it. Major search engines are constantly updating algorithms for ranking websites based on relevance, credibility, authenticity, and usability. This aligns with Google’s fundamental mission statement: “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

At Today Infotech we are always looking for ways to increase our client’s Web Core Vitas aka Page Experience. Especially with the addition of PWA Progressive Web Apps. If you need assistance we are here to help. You can contact us here.

There are hundreds of Google ranking factors, which often fluctuate as updates are added and adjusted. It’s helpful to know which ones maintain higher level priority over others:

Backlinks
Freshness
Topical Authority
Search Intent
Content Depth
Site speed
HTTPS Mobile-friendliness
User Experience
Content Accuracy

While page or user experience has always been an important component of determining a website’s value and worth, page experience will become a new ranking factor all unto its own, and a crucial one that carries a lot of ranking weight. Google defines page experience as “a set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page beyond its pure information value.” So, if your website is creating an experience that visitors hate, the page experience ranking factor may penalize you.

Page Experience Signal Criteria

Mobile friendliness
Page speed insights
Safe Browsing
HTTPS encryption security
Visual layout stability
Responsiveness
No intrusive interstitials

3 Types of Google Algorithm Updates for SEO

Major Updates

These are implemented on a larger scale to address specific issues, and have great impact on ranking. They occur once or a few times annually, and websites are given advanced notice before the updates take place. This allows for a window of time to get prepared, so that rankings of well-established websites don’t plummet as soon as the update goes into effect.

Broad Core Updates

Adjustments to a main algorithm can occur a few times a year, and usually entail shifting the priority of some factors, such as quality of backlinks and loading speed.