Preparing for User Experience (UX) in Google’s 2021 Algorithm Update

It’s no secret that Google is regularly changing and updating its ranking factors, but they’ve already announced a new, vital component for its upcoming website rankings system: user experience (UX). This new update is being called “the Google Page Experience” and while its arrival isn’t slated until sometime in 2021, that means taking the steps necessary now to ensure your website will match up to their standards! Let’s further discuss what sort of factors will play into these UX ranking factors.

UX is an all-encompassing term that refers to how well your visitors can interact with your website. While this can’t be monitored precisely, there are some key factors and metrics that can be used to assume how well your website is optimized for it. For starters, you should take into account mobile-friendliness, page loading speed, HTTPS usage, any intrusive ads or pop-ups, and whether your content is readable as your pages are loading. This isn’t an exhaustive list by any means, but they’re all great points when it comes to UX and should be paid attention to, regardless of this update.

As far as metrics, you should pay attention to:

• LCP – Largest Contentful Paint – This is a measure of page loading speed, with the best UX ratings under 2/5 seconds.
• FID – First Input Delay – This measures inactivity, with the best UX with all pages measured under 100 milliseconds.
• CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift – This is how visual stability is measured, with a good measure for UX meaning pages are all under 0.1.

In order to check these Core Web Vitals yourself, you can use Google’s report here! However, to fix any of these metrics and ensure you can achieve a quality UX, the i3 team is happy to help. Get started with a free consultation from our Facebook page!