Google has confirmed Page Experience Update finished rolling out. The update includes the Top Stories carousel on mobile search, but the Google News app changes won’t be done for a week, say Google reports. The company started rolling out this update on June 15th and had announced the completion by the end of August.
Google’s Search Central Twitter account announced the completion, “the page experience rollout is complete now, including updates to Top Stories mobile carousel. Changes to Google News app have started to roll out as well and will be complete in a week or so”.
Google’s Page Experience ranking factors currently are comprised of four categories:
- Core Web Vitals
- Mobile-friendly
- HTTPS
- No intrusive interstitials
In 2021, core web vitals have been through numerous updates that have had the influence of making the metrics fairer and more accurate. Those updates to the individual metrics comprising Core Web Vitals, in general, have led to improved website scores for most sites.
Recently, Google’s John Muller clarified the apparent ban on intrusive interstitials. He said that interstitials blocking users from the content when they first arrive on a site is what Google considers objectionable and a poor user experience.
Page Experience Update is Important
For any search ranking, relevance is the overall most important outcome, but page experience factors still qualify as important ranking factors that need consideration and attention. These are real ranking factors and do not undervalue it as a tiny nudge that some believe it to be.
The official Google Search Central page for the Page Experience ranking factors states, “in cases where there are many pages that may be similar in relevance, page experience can be much more important for visibility in Search.”
Core Web Vitals is More than a Tie Breaker
There was a time when Core Web Vitals metric was commonly assumed to be small and relatively trivial. Perhaps it was the lack of impact from previous Page Experience factors like HTTPS and mobile-friendliness led to the above assessment. But that is not the case with the entire Page Experience ranking factors taken as a whole, specifically with the Core Web Vitals.
According to Google, they are more than just tie-breakers.
At the beginning of August, Google’s John Mueller stated that Core Web Vitals is more than a tie-breaker, it is a substantial ranking factor in itself.
Having a discussion on Reddit where Core Web Vitals were dropped as relatively inconsequential, John Mueller joined in to notify the community that the Core Web Vitals ranking factor was important and worth paying attention.
“It is a ranking factor, and it’s more than a tie-breaker, but it also doesn’t replace relevance. Depending on the sites you work on, you might notice it more, or you might notice it less. As an SEO, a part of your role is to take all of the possible optimizations and figure out which ones are worth spending time on.”
The Page Experience Update is Relatively Important
Many ranking factors are still covered in mystery. We know that links are important ranking factors, but which links will help with rankings and which ones do nothing is unknown.
The Page Experience ranking signals are different. Thus, Google is transparent and open with regard to these ranking factors and provides useful tips for improving scores.
Given that the Page Experience Ranking Factors are the standard ranking signals, having a ranking effect, it makes sense to be careful about assigning some resources to improve Page Experience Signals. You can browse for “search engine optimization services near me” or get in touch with Webmobril Technologies, where we ensure putting best effort to winning the top spot for you in the search results.