Google recently announced a new initiative called “Web Vitals”. This was created to help websites learn and improve their important user experience metrics. If this is new to you, we suggest you read that update first.
Source: webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/05/evaluating-page-experience.html
Within just a few weeks of sharing this news, the search engine giant released yet another information packed announcement, explaining to users how they would be incorporating these user experience metrics into the upcoming algorithm update, which will be released in 2021.
Read how Google plans to calculate these user experience metrics factors in the future:
“We’re combining the signals derived from Core Web Vitals with our existing Search signals for page experience, including mobile-friendliness, safe-browsing, HTTPS-security, and intrusive interstitial guidelines, to provide a holistic picture of page experience. Because we continue to work on identifying and measuring aspects of page experience, we plan to incorporate more page experience signals on a yearly basis to both further align with evolving user expectations and increase the aspects of user experience that we can measure.”
Google also focuses on making sure that websites do not have any features that annoy users. Here is an example of how certain referenced buttons shift and lead to accidental clicks.
AMP will no longer be a ‘Top Stories’ requirement
Google also revealed that user experience will become such an essential factor that the ‘Top Stories’ carousel will not be limited to just AMP Pages. Rather, there will be more attention on pages with great experience metrics, as explained in the Web Vitals Initiative:
“As part of this update, we’ll also incorporate the page experience metrics into our ranking criteria for the Top Stories feature in Search on mobile, and remove the AMP requirement from Top Stories eligibility. Google continues to support AMP and will continue to link to AMP pages when available. We’ve also updated our developer tools to help site owners optimize their page experience.”
Actionable strategy
Several studies have proved that better user experience can boost your conversions and your overall rankings. So, get ready to welcome the new update that will revolutionize ranking factors for websites!
As always, if you are looking to revamp your website in line with the latest and upcoming Google guidelines, you can get in touch with us for assistance.