The long-awaited Google Page Experience Update is finally here. At the end of 2020, Google already announced that the role of page experience and UX will increase in the rankings of search results. Google wants to offer users the best possible experience and will therefore reward websites that are committed to this. With this, Google is taking the next step in stimulating synergy between SEO and CRO. You can read why we think this is a good move in this blog.
In the summer of 2021, Google fully rolled out the Page Experience Update. Because it is now fully operational, it is a good time to review the changes. Indeed, there are a number of website aspects that will have more influence on the rankings after the update.
At its core, the Page Experience Update consists of four parts: the use of HTTPS, mobile usability, whether or not to use popups, and the Core Web Vitals. The first three parts are a little more obvious and have been mentioned many times, which is why we now want to tell you more about the Core Web Vitals, which consists of those three factors. The three factors that Google will use to assess the quality of user experience are:
LCP is mainly about the speed at which the largest piece of content on the page loads, not just the first element but the most important. A score of up to 2.5 seconds is considered good here. FID then gives an indication of how quickly visitors get a response from the website, how much time is there between the time you click on something and when the browser responds to it. The maximum time to get a good score is 100 ms. CLS finally, measure how many changes are still taking place in the layout. This can be due, for example, to ads that have yet to load, dynamic content, or images that are not sized. The score and calculation for this is fairly complicated.
Do you want to know how your website scores on these factors? Then check out tools like Google Pagespeed Insights and the Google Search Console. This makes it easy to identify the biggest pain points and also provides tips for improvement.
If a website meets the conditions set within these factors, this not only has a positive impact on the ranking in the search results, but also a positive effect on the UX. We can't emphasize enough that having good scores on the Core Web Vitals alone isn't enough. The more traditional SEO factors in content, technology and authority will remain leading. You can see the Page Experience as what gives you an advantage over other sites that are similar in other areas.
In terms of user experience (UX), the Core Web Vitals actually more hygiene factors that are basically the same for every website. Nevertheless, meeting these factors ensures a better user experience and less frustration, which will ultimately translate into more satisfied website visitors and a higher conversion rate. To optimize the user experience for your website and your specific target group, a full-fledged CRO process is required. On the one hand, such a process provides insight into the behavior of visitors and makes it possible to validate hypotheses by means of A/B testing. Read more about Yellowgrape's CRO process in a this blog.
This update from Google is an indication that the collaboration between SEO and CRO will become increasingly important in achieving online e-commerce success. As mentioned, the Core Web Vitals are still very generic and basic for now, but it cannot be ruled out that Google will include more and more indicators of usability in the rankings in the future.
By the way, there are more website components where SEO and CRO intersect. This includes a navigation menu, which helps you navigate through a website and clarifies what information is available. This is a critical element of a positive user experience. In addition, the menu structure is very important from an SEO perspective. A page that is included in the menu is found better than pages that are not. The higher the hierarchy of the menu the page is, the greater the importance of the page. It should therefore be easy for both visitors and search engines to navigate. Another example is the presence of the relatively standard SEO texts that are written per page or category to include relevant keywords in the page. However, it still happens too often that the texts are clearly written for the search engine and not for the end user. This content does take up space on the page, but has no function for the user and can be distracting.
What we especially want to make clear in this blog is that if you spend a lot of time with SEO to attract traffic to your website, you should also pay attention to CRO. Basically by optimizing the website based on the Core Web Vitals, but certainly also at a deeper level. This will not only result in higher rankings, but also in better e-commerce performance.
Want to know more about the collaboration between CRO and SEO? We'd love to help you out! Then take contact with us.
