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    PAGE EXPERIENCE AND CORE WEB VITALS AS A DESKTOP RANKING FACTOR

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    PAGE EXPERIENCE AND CORE WEB VITALS AS A DESKTOP RANKING FACTOR

    After the postponement from May to June, the time has almost come – the Page Experience Update is being rolled out. For the first time, the focus is on mobile devices. The so-called page experience factors then officially count as important signals and, if successfully implemented, ensure a higher ranking. Those who do not prepare for the changes could face possible losses in search results in June. Therefore, as an appeal to you: Don’t forget to prepare yourself and take all the necessary SEO measures to improve your website accordingly.

    Since mobile websites are already an incredibly important criterion for Google and dominate the search engine market as a medium, everyone should be aware that mobile SEO is indispensable.

    It was recently officially announced at the Google I/O that desktop search will also be affected by the Core Web Vitals. Google’s product manager, Jeffrey Jose, explained at Google I/O that every end device is important, which is why the focus is not just on mobile end devices, but will also affect desktops.

    As the smartphone has emerged as the most popular device for searches, it is understandable why the update is prioritizing these devices. Even if it is not yet clear when the desktop update will take place, everyone is well advised to prepare for it. After all, we know the criteria. Right?

    For those of you who are shaking your head or are aware of the criteria but don’t understand exactly how they work, we would like to explain in this article exactly which criteria have been part of the Core Web Vitals from the beginning and which are new additions.

    Today we are talking about the following topics:

    • What are Core Web Vitals
    • The three core features
    • The new criteria of the update for June
    • Preparing for the Page Experience Update through SEO
    UX

    What are Core Web Vitals?

    Core Web Vitals are primarily quality signals that Google provides to website operators. This makes it easier to understand how strong the user experience of your own website is.

    The Core Web Vitals are indicated via clear key figures. This can be very helpful in understanding the weak points of your own website and why the ranking may not be in the desired position.

    This is because the key figures that the website operator sees are signals that the Google search engine has long since received and evaluated.

    The core features at the beginning were the loading process, interactivity and visual stability.

    Core Web Vitals – Criteria

    In order to optimize the website thanks to the key figures, it is necessary to understand them. These are the first three key figures of Google’s Core Web Vitals:

    Largest Contentfult Paint (LCP): In short, this is the loading time of a website. The key figure indicates the duration of the loading process up to the point at which all the main content of the website is fully loaded. The ideal value specified by the search engine is around 2.5 seconds. The faster the better. Of course, this does not mean that your website has to load incredibly fast, within milliseconds.

    • Why is this so important? It always helps if you put yourself in the shoes of a visitor to your website. Imagine you urgently need an answer to a question and click on a link in the search results where you hope to find the answer. Now the page loads for almost four seconds with every click. The inhibition threshold to continue browsing the website is getting bigger and bigger. In addition to the low PageSpeed, the search engine also recognizes the bounce rate.

    First Input Delay (FID): FID describes the interactivity of your website. To create a metric from this, Google measures the time it takes for users to click on the link to your website and up to the point where they tap a button (or similar interactive element). A good user experience has an FID of less than 100ms. Everything above that needs improvement.

    • Why is this so important? Not only must a page load quickly, the interaction elements should also be able to load quickly. Otherwise, as in the previous point, it will be very frustrating for the user. Zooming and scrolling, for example, do not count as an initial interaction. In general, this provides a rough overview of the user’s first impression of the website. The lower the FID, the better the user experience.

    Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): The CLS deals with the general visual impact of the website on the user. In order to measure how user-friendly the layout is, Google has also developed a measurement system for clear key figures. It therefore measures how the individual layout elements move during use. Google specifies an ideal value of around 0.1 or lower.

    • Why is this so important? Imagine you click on a small element and it moves completely. In the worst case, the page is completely confusing and becomes independent. A good website should be intuitive to use and not turn into a search game. No user enjoys reading a blog post, for example, when the entire text shifts with a slight scroll and users are completely torn out of the reading flow.
    Positive UX

    The criteria of the update for June

    The new update is primarily about combining the new criteria with the old ones. They can therefore be seen as supporting factors through which the Core Web Vitals can be displayed even more precisely.

    But for a better understanding, we would like to explain the signals:

    Mobile-friendliness: Mobile phones are increasingly dominating the search results – we have already established this. For this very reason, it is a major and important signal for Google that the websites work perfectly on mobile devices and that a responsive design has been used.

    • Why is this so important? In the past, smartphones weren’t used for much other than calls or short text messages. The Internet button caused fear in most people – far too expensive. Today it is many years ago and almost everyone owns a cell phone for – especially for the Internet aspect. We live in the luxury of being able to quickly enter what we are looking for on the go and Google provides us with suitable results. However, if a website is partially cut off and some elements cannot be reached, it is essentially completely useless for mobile devices. A big problem for Google as well as for your sales!

    Safe browsing: Thanks to the Security Issue Report, problems regarding the security of websites can be easily displayed from the update onwards. Now you will be warned whether you are affected by malware, deceptive sites, harmful or unusual downloads. This allows you to rectify any problems as quickly as possible.

    • Why is this so important? The answer is simple: Because security on the Internet is one of our greatest needs. Nobody likes going to strange sites or clicking a download button without questioning whether it is really safe. Getting a virus and damaging your computer is not just a nuisance for some, it can become a costly problem. If you have integrated affected content on your website – whether unknowingly or not – and users receive viruses or similar as a result, this is not only bad for your image, but also for your ranking and everything that makes your website special. Once a trust like this has been broken, it is almost impossible to rebuild it. Unlike a poorly structured website, for example, this problem will also get around quickly.

    HTTPS security: The be-all and end-all of any website, which can easily be found in the form of the lock symbol next to the URL. An easy-to-understand indicator for both users and website operators. This is very easy to achieve by using a server certificate(SSL).

    • Why is this so important? Following on from the point above, these are one and the same reasons. However, the difference here is that we are talking about your users’ personal data, which – if not encrypted – may be leaked to third parties and illegally on the web. In doing so, you are not fulfilling your responsibility and breaking a great foundation of trust. Especially since the lock symbol is a very simple indicator and leads to a high bounce rate if it is missing, as users know that pages without this symbol should be viewed with caution or better not at all.

    Intrusive Interstitial Guidelines: What sounds complicated, simply put, only concerns the pop-ups on your website – but above all the size. Apart from necessary pop-ups, such as age verification or confirmation of cookies, no unnecessarily large pop-ups should disrupt the user experience of visitors. So less is clearly more. Clean your site of pop-ups that you can actually do without or reduce their size.

    • Why is this so important? Nobody likes pop-ups. Let’s be honest with ourselves. The big problem is that they are mainly known as unsolicited advertising and, especially when it comes to the keyword unsolicited, most people agree that this is never a nice thing to do. Whether on the Internet or in everyday life. If they are then difficult to close, haunt you or keep popping up, the annoyance is complete. The only reaction of your visitors: “Just get out of here!”.
    User Experience

    Preparing for the Page Experience Update through SEO

    So you see, in theory it’s not that difficult to understand these signals and why they are such important quality features for Google. In the end, a lot of work is already done for you if you get a rough overview of the performance of your website based on facts and figures.

    If you know about these factors, you can tackle the problem – thanks to search engine optimization. No measure is better than maintaining the site from the ground up and preparing for the page experience update. This way you don’t lose ranking, but gain advantages and visibility over those who are negligent.

    Ultimately, SEO starts on the desktop anyway and transfers the optimization measures to an equally perfectly implemented responsive design for the other end devices. So if you start preparing for the mobile update now, you will automatically do the same for the desktop version, provided you invest in good SEO or venture into search engine optimization yourself.

    Our final tip: seize the opportunity and stand your ground against the competition now more than ever.

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