Google confirmed that the Page Experience update has finished rolling out to desktop search results. Now is the time to assess the impact.
renew Start Launching on desktop on February 22, the 9-day rollout will end on March 3.
In contrast, it took two and a half months for the mobile page experience update to go live.
With Google announcing the end of the desktop rollout, you can start evaluating the impact on your search rankings.
The deployment of the page experience for the desktop version is now complete.
— Google Search Center (@googlesearchc) March 3, 2022
Desktop Page Experience Update – Assessing Impact
Positive or negative changes in desktop search rankings that occurred on or after March 3rd can be attributed to Google’s page experience updates.
To determine if this is the case, use Google’s tools to analyze your site’s Page Experience Score.
Google Search Console has a report dedicated to evaluating page experience standards for desktop pages.
Use Search Console reports to understand how page experience updates are affecting your site.
If the report shows that most of your pages are red or yellow, any drop in rankings that occurred on March 3rd may have been the result of negatively impacted page experience updates.
If you notice that your site has a poor Page Experience score, the next step is to find out why by looking at the criteria individually.
Desktop Page Experience Update Standards
The on-page experience update for Google’s desktop search includes many of the same ranking factors as the algorithm rolled out on mobile search last year.
Desktop Page Experience ranking factors include:
- Core Network Vitality (LCP + CLS + FID)
- HTTPS secure
- No intrusive interstitial ads
Screenshot from developer.google.com/search/blog, November 2021.If your site doesn’t meet any of the above criteria, you won’t benefit from a page experience ranking boost on desktop.
A drop in ranking doesn’t mean your site is penalized for not meeting Google’s page experience standards.
This means that sites that meet Google’s standards may end up ranking higher than you, resulting in your page ranking lower.
So, improving your Page Experience Score can help you regain those ranking positions and stay competitive.
It’s easy to narrow down which component of the page experience update you need to focus on.
- Is your website HTTPS? If yes, you can rule this out.
- Does your website have intrusive ads? If not, you can rule this out.
- Has your website passed the Core Web Vitals threshold? If you are not sure, you must test it.
The Google Core Web Vitals report in Search Console shows how your pages are performing against each metric using real-world data.
Core Web Vitals analysis is built into many other Google tools, such as PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and Chrome DevTools.
You can even download an extension for the Chrome browser to inspect Core Web Vitals page by page.
Use these tools to determine which pages need further optimization to meet Google’s page experience standards.
It’s important to note that the page experience isn’t everything.
The Green Pages Experience Score does not automatically improve your ranking, and if your score ends up reaching it, you are not automatically hurt by this update.
In the end, content relevance always wins. But it also helps provide a good page experience.
Featured Image: rawf8/Shutterstock
