Get your Page Experience UX Report and beat Google before you lose

If you are aware of the news, you will know that Google announced that UX will be a fundamental part of the website positioning algorithm for its search engine.

Just as a small recap, here is the highlight of the entire announcement:

Page experience ranking

Great page experiences enable people to get more done and engage more deeply; in contrast, a bad page experience could stand in the way of a person being able to find the valuable information on a page. By adding page experience to the hundreds of signals that Google considers when ranking search results, we aim to help people more easily access the information and web pages they’re looking for, and support site owners in providing an experience users enjoy.

While all of the components of page experience are important, we will prioritize pages with the best information overall, even if some aspects of page experience are subpar. A good page experience doesn’t override having great, relevant content. However, in cases where there are multiple pages that have similar content, page experience becomes much more important for visibility in Search.

From Evaluating page experience for a better web

What does this mean? In simple terms, you’re in a pickle.

Understanding Page Experience

First of all, let’s try to explain what Page Experience is.

As you probably imagine, it’s the same as user experience, only that measured on a single page. And this is something to worry: You may have one page that is OK. But Google will consider each and every page.

So, let’s say your site has 20 pages. One of them (usually the homepage) is optimized. 4 of them are so-so. 15 of them (usually posts and articles) have a sub-par page experience.

So, it would be quite adventurous to tell how will the new algorithm behave exactly. But based on what Google announced, we can extract the following conclusions:

Great content will still be king

There was never a doubt about this: Google won’t abandon great content in favor of user experience. We could argue that great content is part of user experience (and it is, no argument about that). But to the effects of this article and Google announcements, we can accept a diferentiation between content and UX.

Similar pages will be ranked by page experience

So let’s say you have great content. And same goes for a competitor’s page. Google will define who ranks higher by user experience. As simple as that. It’s not a guessing, it’s part of Google announcement.

There’s a growing amount of requirements for SEO

SEO requirements are just not about speed anymore. Now they will include a great deal of technical and web design factors. Including the following

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): measures loading performance. To provide a good user experience, LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when the page first starts loading.
• First Input Delay (FID): measures interactivity. To provide a good user experience, pages should have a FID of less than 100 milliseconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): measures visual stability. To provide a good user experience, pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1.

Already scared? Well, in fact it’s doable. Take a look to the image below. It’s a website we built considering all the new Google requirements. The screenshot is in Spanish , but you can see LCP of 1.1s , FID of 1.1s and CLS of 0. This is great, of course, and we’re really proud about these results. But it took us one month to get these results (of course, building the site from scratch). Most webmasters can’t afford that, specially when the site is alive. Just in case: We we achieve these results with our Page Speed Optimization Service at Flamine

New and old metrics

So, if you’re playing the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) game, there’s a growing set of requirements. Google provided the following graphic you can check in order to see where do you stand:

The ones in green are the new requirements, also known as Core Web Vitals (CWV). Besides Page Speed Insights, you will also find information on your Google Search Console.

The ones in grey already existed. Together, they form the core of Search Signals for Page Experience. A set of words you’ll start to hear a lot, believe me.

Accessibility: a surprise announcement to come?

This is pure speculation. But we expect a huge announcement regarding accessibility enforcement on websites. After all: did you know that according to most legislations (including US,UK, EU and many more) your site HAS to be accesible? That in most countries is not optional?

And did you know this is a law that is not being actively enforced, but there are many multi million dollar accessibility lawsuits already?

Think about this hypothetical case: Jessica has an amazing e-commerce site where she sells homemade cakes. Her hard work efforts are being rewarded and she is making a good profit. She did all the recommended SEO steps, write honest content, create custom images and videos. In short: she really deserves success for her effort!

Now picture this: John loves homemade cakes. He finds Jessica’s site through a Google search. He clicks on the search result and he is taken to Jessica’s site.

However, he can’t do anything. I forgot to mention: John is blind.

Many non-technical people will think “well, a website is for people who can see.” Let’s say for… “normal” people.

But, this is a mistake.

Any website and application can allow blind people to access its content. As well as people with motor dysfunctions, deaf people, with neurological conditions and almost any other existing disability. And it requires very little work!

However, whether it’s because of ignorance, or for not doing something that webmasters are not prepared for (and don’t want to pay for), most websites are not accessible.

Enter Jessica losing her business.

Sounds exaggerated? Trials for accessibility reasons are growing at a rate of 100% each year. Only in the US.

Ask yourself: is your site accessible? Do you really know?

Or are you going to risk rolling the dice and hope that luck will benefit you?

Well, whatever you do, there is an important player in this game, who can enforce the laws just by adding an accessibility analysis. I guess you can already imagine who I’m talking about.

And this player can prevent you from having a trial for not complying with accessibility laws. Yay! Great news!

The problem is … that to do it, Google must send your site to the bottom of the search results so nobody finds it. You don’t risk a lawsuit anymore, but you won’t have an income either.

Of course, this is just hypothetical. For now.

Unless…

Just in case: Google is already measuring Accessibility as part of the algorithm. You better get ready!

Getting ahead of Google: SEO and UX Report

Just in case you’re getting a bit scared, DON’T! You can be ahead of Google changes and your competitors with our UX Report.

A UX report is a mandatory set of data, an insight tool for any website. Just imagine this: do you take your car to the mechanic for a periodical check? Well, this is the same, only that for your money making sites. For less than what a mechanic will charge you!

We’ll tell you the exact state of your site. Which problems we find, which opportunities, which strengths to improve. From SEO to usability, from Site Speed Optimization to accessibility and everything in between!

It’s fast, it’s really affordable and the best part: we can fix any problem we find should you want it.

The gist of this is: you need to act, and you need to act NOW. Maybe your competitors are already doing it. Or maybe not, but your site won’t be ready when Google rolls out the new algo.

The only sure thing is: clock is ticking

Get your UX REPORT NOW!

Fabio Devin

Fabio is Bachelor in Marketing, Master in Human Computer Interaction and a UX Evangelist.

He worked for some of the biggest companies in the world. As such, he has developed entire systems and businesses for clients of all sizes.