Top Tips To Get Your Website Loading Fast Before The May 2021 Update

Before the May 2021 Google page experience update goes live, there are a few things you should look at in regards to your website.

You may have heard whispers of Google’s page experience update – it’s been in the works for a year or so, and the last time there was such a big overhaul was over a decade ago. It’s not far off now, with the changes set to be rolled out in May. As the leading experts in SEO Essex has to offer, we’re here to guide you through the process!

What is page experience?

First things first – what is page experience? Well as the name suggests, page experience refers to the experience your user has on a page. It also encompasses that factors that have an impact on that experience. Right now, the things that Google uses to weigh up a web user’s experience on a site are things such as the site speed, mobile-friendliness, whether users have a safe browsing experience, if the site runs on HTTPS, and other factors.

Core Web Vitals

In addition to the above, Google is now adding three new page experience signals. These will further reward businesses whose sites provide a good user experience and are known as Core Web Vitals. These three signals are:

• Largest Contentful Paint – this refers to the largest image or text block visible in view on a page. How long this takes to render will determine your score. A site with a great page experience should have an LCP that occurs within the first 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load.
• Cumulative Layout Shift – this measures how much the elements in the viewport move as a page continues to load. This could be something like a visitor clicking on a link only for it to shift as they so. Sites should aim for a score of less than 0.1.
• First Input Delay – this is a measurement of interactivity. Google will measure the time between someone interacting with your site and the site responding. The time should be fewer than 100 milliseconds to ensure a smooth user experience.

Not everything is changing

Luckily for you, some things are staying the same! Google will still be measuring a site’s page experience by looking at mobile-friendliness, HTTPs, safe browsing, and no intrusive interstitials. However, that doesn’t mean that you should neglect those aspects of your site. Just because they aren’t the focus of the current update doesn’t mean that they aren’t important, and you should still continue to refine them.

Preparing for the update

Preparing for the page experience update is easy when you have an expert team in your corner like Freelance SEO Essex. We’ll be able to flag any issues on your desktop and mobile site, and anticipate what changes you will need to make in order to fare well once the update has gone live. It’s important to remember that even if you perfect all aspects of page experience, you still won’t rank highly if you are producing poor content. We’ll ensure that you’re serving high-quality content at every turn to boost your SEO.

Get in touch

If you want to find out more about the upcoming May 2021 page experience update and/or the services we provide, then please get in touch with our team today. They’ll be happy to answer any questions that you may have, and they will be able to help you start charting the best path forward for your site right away.