Google’s page experience algorithm update is starting to roll out now and will be completed by the end of August 2021.
The update will be slowly rolling out to all users globally. Top Stories will begin using the signal by this Thursday.
In an announcement, the company states:
“We’ll begin using page experience as part of our ranking systems beginning in mid-June 2021. However, page experience won’t play its full role as part of those systems until the end of August. You can think of it as if you’re adding a flavoring to a food you’re preparing. Rather than add the flavor all at once into the mix, we’ll be slowly adding it all over this time period.”
Sites should not expect to see drastic changes as a result of this update, Google says, and any sudden drops or spikes should be mitigated by the gradual rollout process.
Google first announced back in November that the page experience update was scheduled to go live this year.
Since then, much information has come out regarding what will be included in the update. It may come as good news to site owners that Google hasn’t thrown in any surprises in the form of new features that weren’t previously revealed.
To recap what has already been shared with site owners and the SEO community, here’s what the page experience update consists of.
What Is The Page Experience Update?
The page experience update considers several signals that go into creating an optimal browsing experience for users.
Google assesses each of the signals and gives a website an overall ‘page experience’ score. Site owners can view their score in the new page experience report in Search Console.
These are each of the signals and what is required to achieve a “good” page experience score.
- Core Web Vitals: See our guide to Google’s Core Web Vitals.
- Mobile usability: A page must have no mobile usability errors.
- Security issues: Any security issues for a site disqualify all pages on the site from a Good status.
- HTTPS usage: A page must be served over HTTPS to be eligible for Good page experience status.
- Ad Experience: A site must not use advertising techniques that are distracting, interrupting, or otherwise not conducive to a good user experience.
As part of this update, AMP is no longer a requirement for pages to be included in the Top Stories carousel. That change will take effect as early as this Thursday.
In addition, Google is expanding the usage of non-AMP content to Google News and removing the AMP badge icon from search results.
The page experience update currently applies only to mobile search results, but it will roll out to desktop at a later date.
From the way Google describes it, the desktop launch is likely to happen much further down the road. I would not expect it to happen during the rollout that’s occurring between now and the end of August.
If you’re not fully ready for the page experience update, Google’s advice is not to panic because the ranking signal is said to be a “tiebreaker.”
It’s possible we’ll learn more about the page experience update as it continues its gradual launch, as it’s certainly too early to notice any impact from it.
