The page experience update is now slowly rolling out and will be completed by the end of August 2021. This update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experience, and page experience will remain one of the many factors that Google takes into account while ranking.
Since the update is being rolled out gradually, it is expected that websites would not see any drastic changes in traffic and will also allow Google to monitor any unexpected issues.
Google announced page experience signals would be included in Google search ranking back in May 2020. And in November 2020, there was another announcement about page experience update being rolled out in 2021.
Page Experience Signals
For the page experience signals, Google will combine signals from the Core Web Vitals along with their existing search signals such as mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPs security, and no intrusive interstitials.
Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics from the real world that would help site owners measure their web pages’ user experience. The Core Web Vitals metrics are related to the speed, responsiveness, and visual stability of the webpage, and webmasters can now access these metrics directly from their Google Search Console.
Top Stories Eligibility
Along with the page experience update, Google has planned to roll out few other changes related to the Top Stories carousel:
- AMP is no longer a requirement for the eligibility of the Top Stories carousel.
- Google will include page experience signals as ranking criteria for the Top Stories carousel feature in mobile search.
Ranking Fluctuations
Google’s John Mueller has confirmed there will not be a sudden drop in rankings for websites with poor Core Web Vitals scores due to the slow roll-out over a span of 2 months.
Notes:
- Although Google has repeatedly confirmed there will not be any sudden drop in rankings, SERP tracking tools have picked up steady fluctuations in search results since the roll-out of this update.
- Google announced on Twitter that the page experience update is completely rolled out for Google Search and Top Stories carousel as of September 3, 2021, while changes to Google News app has started and will be completed in a week or so. Here is the announcement:
The page experience rollout is complete now, including updates to Top Stories mobile carousel. Changes to Google News app have started to rollout as well and will be complete in a week or so.
— Google Search Central (@googlesearchc) September 2, 2021
Update: The Page Experience Update completed rolling out on September 2, 2021.
