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What You Need to Know About Google’s Upcoming Page Experience Update
What You Need to Know About Google’s Upcoming Page Experience Update
Google reportedly updates its search algorithm hundreds or even thousands of times each year. But for months, the forthcoming Page Experience update has been the source of much speculation. While experts initially believed that the update would have taken place by now, Google has announced a delay that can give businesses a little more time to prepare for what’s to come.
Whether you’re completely unfamiliar with what this Page Experience update might mean for your site or you’re looking for specific guidance on how to get ready, this post can address your concerns and safeguard your website against possible penalizations.
New Launch Date: June 2021
Throughout 2020, digital marketers and web developers were abuzz with how the Page Experience update might impact their clients’ sites. Your SEO agency might have made recommendations to you in order to get everything ready before May 2021, the expected launch time for the Page Experience update.
But by late April, Google announced that the update wouldn’t roll out according to that original schedule. Instead, the algorithm update would start to take effect in mid-June. It’s expected that the update will be fully rolled out by August 2021.
Google has stated that this more gradual approach will allow business owners time to make relevant changes while reducing the risk of drastic ranking changes. The company will also provide ongoing guidance to support website owners in knowing what to expect and how to prepare.
The Biggest Change: Google’s Core Web Vitals
Google updates its algorithm in an effort to align its search results with user intent and behavior. These updates aren’t meant to punish anyone; instead, they’re intended to provide better, more relevant results on a consistent basis. Although these updates can wreak havoc, in some cases, they’re supposed to reward sites that are providing value.
That will undoubtedly be the case once the Page Experience update takes effect. Google has always cared about the experience sites provide to visitors, but this latest update will really put those experiences under the microscope. The metrics included in the Page Experience update will address factors that could potentially have a huge impact on a web visitor’s ability to interact with a site and their overall perception of that site.
This update will address considerations that already play a role in the visitor experience, like mobile-friendliness, site security, and intrusive interstitials. However, there are other elements involved in this update you may not know as much about. Google’s Core Web Vitals are the cornerstone of this update, so it’s time to become familiar with them so you can make any necessary adjustments to your site.
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): If you’ve ever been frustrated by a webpage with slow-loading visuals, you’ll understand the importance of LCP. This measures the amount of time it takes for the biggest piece of content on a page to load completely. In other words, it speaks to loading speed and performance. Ideally, a page’s LCP rate should be less than 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay (FID): When you click on a page, you’ll want to be able to interact with it right away. But if you aren’t able to fill in a field or click a button immediately, this can be aggravating. FID measures the amount of time it takes for a page’s elements to provide their interactive features. Aim to get your page’s FID below 100 milliseconds to adhere to best practices for this update.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): As you wait for a page to load, you might be thrown off by a rapidly changing or jumping layout. That’s known as a layout shift — and it can be quite jarring, especially if you were in the middle of reading some content. CLS measures the number of layout shifts in a page’s entire lifespan. With this update, you should make every attempt to alleviate layout shifts so that your CLS score is lower than 0.1.
How to Prepare Your Website
Now that you understand what Google’s Core Web Vitals are and what will matter most with the Page Experience update, it’s time to get your website ready. Here are a few steps to take:
- Prioritize mobile-friendly and accessible design
- Fix navigation issues and errors
- Test your site’s speed and eliminate delays
- Create great content consistently to support your SEO
- Improve site security and acquire HTTPS certification
- Eliminate intrusive interstitials
- Learn more about page performance with Google’s Page Experience report
By taking these steps now, your website will be ready in advance of the June algorithm update’s launch. Even better, your webpages will provide a more positive user experience now and in the future. Once you remove any existing barriers, nothing will hold you back from ranking well in search results.
- Published in SEO
Understanding the Importance of Your Logo
Finding good logo design services is one of the most important things that you can do for your business. People remember things when they hear or see them numerous times, usually at a minimum of 10 times. The logo on your business is how people remember you. When they drive by, it’s how they see where you’re located, and it gets them thinking about you. It’s a form of marketing to the public, helping to make your business more memorable than your competitors.
Finding the right logo design services means that you’ll be able to put together the best possible logo that helps build up your business. Here are just a few of the ways that a great logo can help your business.
People Judge Books By Their Covers
We may be taught not to judge a book by its cover, but plenty of people still do. Your business’ logo is part of that cover that you’re showing the world. A well-produced and attention-grabbing logo is going to show customers that you’re a business that they can trust. A poorly done logo, on the other hand, can easily make customers think less of your business before they even go through the door. So, make sure that you find logo design services who are able to make sure you have a logo that customers love from the moment they see it.
It Gives Your Brand an Identity
One of the most important things to know about your logo is that it’s going to be associated with your brand going forward. In other words, it becomes part of brand identity. People will associate your business with that logo inherently. This is how people remember you, and from the colors to the tone of the logo, it says what your brand is all about.
Customers Will Think Something Is Wrong if You Don’t Have One
This may sound obvious, but almost every business has a logo. Even small businesses that don’t have highly recognizable logos, have some form of logo. So, if you choose to move forward as a business without one, the average customer is going to think something is wrong with your business. They could think anything from that you might overlook details, or you simply don’t care enough about the details if you don’t have a logo. They certainly will feel odd about your business, as they won’t have an image to hold onto in their heads for you.
Ready to design your perfect logo? Reach out to us today to learn more about our logo design services.
- Published in Design
Telltale Signs Your Website Needs a Redesign
Some sites look and function great, and some have serious problems that need to be addressed. If you aren’t getting the traffic that you expect for your website, it may be time to redesign the site.
Its Design Is Overly Complicated
The days for overly complicated websites are over now that people prioritize a site that loads quickly and is easy to navigate. Even site menus have become simple, consisting of just a few horizontal lines, also known as the hamburger menu. If your site is overly complicated, you need a website design agency ASAP.
It’s in Flash
If your site was created with Flash, it’s outdated. Flash lags and makes it harder to edit your site. It also makes it hard to optimize your site for search engines. People search with words, and they won’t be searching for pictures of your content. Each day, there are 3.5 billion searches on Google alone. You need to be able to get some of that traffic, and that will happen through text on your site. A website design agency can redesign it to be more practical.
You Aren’t Getting Search Engine Traffic
When you check your analytics, some of your site’s traffic will come through links on other sites, some of it will come from the address typed in directly, and some of it should be coming from search engines. If it isn’t, something is severely wrong with your website. It is likely to be poor content that is not ranking well with search engine crawlers. The pages may be too short or simply not right for the subject matter. Often, the design includes nothing but gray boxes of text without other media being used. You may need to replace the pages on your site with content that uses SEO strategies to drive more traffic to the site as well as features like pictures and video.
It Doesn’t Have Mobile Optimization
These days, a huge percentage of online searches are conducted on mobile devices. If your site isn’t optimized for this traffic, it won’t work well for those on phones and tablets. This is no way to run a modern website. If your site isn’t optimized for this traffic, it needs a redesign right away from a website design agency. Having it poorly optimized is also one of the criteria that search engines use for ranking a site. No optimization means a poorer ranking.
- Published in Webdesign
3 Signs Your Business Needs Better Social Media Management
As a scrappy new business owner, you have had a teenage relative handling posting to your social media when you first started. But now that your business has grown, you need a more effective way to reach your current and future customers — especially since around 90% of consumers use social media to communicate with businesses. From bakeries and mechanics to insurance agencies and clothing retailers, all organizations need a responsive social media presence. If you don’t, you’ll be losing potential customers. But what are some signs your business could use better social media management? Take a look below.
You Have Outgrown Your Original Posting Strategy
You may have once found success with a single platform and a few hashtags, but now, your posts are getting lost and you can’t handle all of the different channels. This is where a social media management agency comes in. A social media manager can create daily posts that encourage consumer engagement, which can help you stay at the top of everyone’s feed. Since algorithms change so frequently, social media agencies stay on top of them and keep your posts current.
Your Content Has No Cohesive Messaging
Your social media posts were once all about highlighting your products, but now you want to add in positive reviews. By utilizing a social media management agency, you can integrate your customer reviews into your posts as a way to show that you communicate with your customers. Your social media management team will be able to highlight your charitable contributions in a way that works with the core message of your company and attracts new customers. Having a solid team to make sure that all your social media has the same theme and helps build your brand. Your social media account will be a way to reach customers and won’t become a liability.
You Just Don’t Have Time
When you’re busy running your business, it may feel impossible for you to keep up with the social media landscape. If you aren’t posting regularly, then you’re falling behind. By hiring a social media management agency, you’ll get back that time and increase your customer reach.
Now that you can recognize when it’s time to invest in social media management, you’ll know what your next step should be. For more on how we can help take your social media presence to the next level, please get in touch with our team today.
- Published in Social Media
