Google Removes Safe Browsing and Ad Experience Widgets from Page Experience Ranking Signal Criteria

As we are approaching the completion of page experience ranking update rollout, (August 31, 2021) Google is trying to simplify things for publishers and site owners. In its recent launch, the tech giant company has brought a new version of Search Console’s page experience report, with Safe Browsing and Ad Experience widgets removed from it. Having said that, it will simplify the report with the removal of redundant data. Several fixes are also implemented to improve the ways missing data is handled.  

Not to forget, Google had launched the Page Experience report in Search Console earlier this year to offer publishers and site owners a way to quickly understand how their sites fare against the page experience signals. Now, the company is eliminating safe browsing from the criteria sites need to get the benefits from the page experience ranking factor. This change is in Search Console’s page experience report makes it a more simplified design with no space for redundant data.

Google provided the reason behind this decision through a blog post. Here are what all changes you can find in the update rolled out for Search Console’s page experience report.

Removing the Safe Browsing Widget

The reason why Google considered removing the safe browsing widget from the page experience report is that it is no longer a ranking signal. The report was created with the purpose to help SEOs understand how sites perform against signals that make up the page experience ranking factor. But safe browsing data do not make it be one of the signals to influence page ranking, and thus it seems an inessential part of Search Console’s page experience report.

 “Safe Browsing systems at Google are designed to keep users safe on the internet. Sometimes sites fall victim to third-party hijacking, which can cause Safe Browsing warnings to be surfaced. We recognize that these issues aren't always within the control of site owners, which is why we're clarifying that Safe Browsing isn't used as a ranking signal and won’t feature in the Page Experience report. ”

However, Google Search Console will continue to report on any safe browsing flags outside the page experience report.

Removing the Ad Experience Widget

Ad experience widget is the other factor that dropped out of the Search Console page experience report. This has been done with the purpose to avoid surfacing the same information on two parts of Search Console.

However, the ad experience report that identifies ad experiences violating the Better Ads Standards will continue to be available as a standalone tool in Search Console. Hence, you can review the status of your site.

 “The Ad Experience report was never used as a factor for page experience, so this change won't affect your site’s page experience status,” Google cleared in its blog post.

Additional Improvements

Besides the above two important updates, Google has introduced several bug fixes and improvements to how the page experience report handles missing data. The noted improvements are;

• Added a “No recent data” banner to the Core Web Vitals report and Page Experience report.
• Fixed a bug that caused the report to show “Failing HTTPS” when Core Web Vitals data was missing.
• Rephrased the empty state text in the Page Experience report and Core Web Vitals report.

The tech giant is hopeful for the improvements to make the Page Experience report easy to use and help publishers and site owners build websites with great page experience.  

Why We care

Webmobril Technologies is an ROI-focussed digital marketing company that serves diverse businesses of all sizes and domains, with strategies to drive both traffic and conversions. Thus we keep a tab on every update in the online marketing world to tailor our strategy around it and offer the desired result.