Page Experience: You now have to know about Google’s new ranking factor

The user experience will have a stronger influence on the Google ranking in the future. Due to the corona crisis, the changes will come into force in 2021 at the earliest.

Google is revising the ranking factors again. In the future, the user experience is to be given more importance. At the same time, the availability of an AMP version will no longer play a role in the placement in the search results. The group announced this in a blog post. However, due to the corona crisis, the changes should not come into force until 2021. Google promises to announce the exact date at least six months in advance so that website operators have enough time to make any adjustments to their site.

Google: Web Vitals form the core of the new ranking factors

The core of the planned ranking factor are the Web Vitals key figures presented at the beginning of May 2020 . They consist of a total of three individual metrics, with which render time, time between user activity and browser reaction and the visual stability of a website are measured. In addition, the new ranking factor should also contain existing signals.

In addition to the Web Vitals key figures, the new ranking factor will therefore also include the following questions in the evaluation:

  • Is the website optimized for mobile devices?
  • Is the website safe with no malicious code or phishing content?
  • Is the connection to the website protected by HTTPS?
  • Are overly intrusive popup elements preventing the actual content from being seen?

The final value of the new ranking factor is then calculated from the respectively determined Web Vitals values ​​and the four other signals. Together with the existing factors, this then results in the level of placement in the Google search results.

Search Console: Web Vitals Report now replaces the Speed ​​Report

In the meantime, Google has also revised the speed report in the Search Console. Instead of the previous report, three Web Vitals key figures are now also recorded for your own website. Google had previously integrated the new assessment basis into the Chrome User Experience Report. In addition, the group has announced that it will also use the Web Vitals as the basis for Pagespeed Insights in the future.