The current market is dedicated to satisfying the needs of the consumers. There’s a constant race among sellers and manufacturers to meet these expectations, forcing businesses of all sizes to create stellar online experiences for their audience. And at the center of this experience is your website.
The primary objective of any search engine is to provide an outstanding user experience (UX), and that’s exactly what they expect from your website. Page experience, along with other factors, has become the ultimate driver for search rankings. How do you, as a brand, leverage this?
How To Optimize Your Content According to Google’s Page Experience Algorithm
In order to optimize your website based on the latest Page Experience algorithm update, understand the basics first. Essentially, the algorithm is concerned with two main elements of a page: content and responsiveness. It operates on the principle that users are drawn to fast load speeds and easy-to-read content that contains all the information they need. An effective on-page search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, together with great content, is what you need to get on top of this update.
Here’s how to get started:
Usability Tests
First, run usability tests on your web pages. This test will give you an idea of your site functionality and pinpoint the reasons behind your increasing bounce rates. Is it the irrelevant content or the complex language you’re using? When done properly, the test will help you optimize your webpage and deliver the best page experience for your users.
Use of Content Management Systems
A content management system (CMS) helps website owners produce new content or edit already published ones while removing complex coding that’s otherwise involved in writing texts. Make sure you’re utilizing the right CMS to save on time and resources as you’re building your content.
Use of Content Delivery Networks
A content delivery network (CDN) is nothing but a bunch of servers established to your nearest locations. CDNs work as a messenger for your content. The more CDNs you use, the faster your content will load up.
Suppose the website owners published the content from point A, and a user who’s thousands of miles away from point A searches for that content. With the help of CDN, the content from point A will reach the nearest server from that user. This will considerably reduce the load time and enhance the user’s page experience.
No Intrusive Interstitials
Interstitials are intrusive pop-up ads that appear on a webpage and block the content from view. In order to optimize user experience, minimize the use of interstitials across your pages. Not only do they undermine page experience, but they can also force users to misclick other links while trying to get rid of the ads.
There are, however, instances where you might want to keep them, usually when they’re used as login or free subscription prompts. But if the interstitial is unnecessarily blocking the content, it will have a negative impact on the users and by extension, Google.
Webpage Optimization Strategies To Increase UX
Page experience is all about providing the best possible information to users in the least amount of time. To ensure this, Google has updated its guidelines and added hundreds of signals a web page must have. Here’s what you should focus on:
1. Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are measuring standards primarily centered on users. They involve three basic aspects of user experience: page speed, responsiveness and visual stability. Satisfying these metrics decreases your bounce rates, meaning you’re keeping your visitors on your page longer, and ultimately, creates a superb page experience for all your readers.
2. Mobile-Friendliness
Mobile devices are used 70 percent of the time to access the internet. For brands, making web pages mobile-friendly is not just a plus – it’s a must. Make sure your website is accessible and responsive across all devices: desktops, smartphones and tablets. You can check your site’s mobile-responsiveness by using Google’s mobile-friendly test.
3. Safe Browsing
Although Safe Browsing was recently removed as a page experience ranking signal, your website should still be safe to browse. This means your content should neither be misleading nor ask for any type of confidential information from the users. The intent behind your content should be crystal clear. Failure to meet these guidelines can lead to major consequences. One, you will lose reader trust. And two, Google will display a DECEPTIVE SITE AHEAD warning for users whenever they try to access your site. To make sure users know your site can be trusted, Google’s Safe Browsing protection should be enabled.
4. HTTPS
Make sure that your webpage loads with HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS). Mixing your webpages with both HTTP and HTTPS tags will not make your website fully encrypted, and the activities of the user may be tagged unauthorized and even lead to on-path attacks. This phenomenon is known as mixed content, which Google strongly advises against. Avoid it at all costs by having HTTPS on all your site resources. You can also check whether your site connection is secure.