In May, Google announced that it would include a new ranking factor in the assessment of websites. The search engine algorithm will get a major update and the new ranking factor will be added to the current ranking factors. The update will be implemented sometime in 2021. What does this new ranking factor mean and how does it affect your WordPress website? In this article we will give you all the answers.
What are Google (SEO) ranking factors?
Google’s algorithm consists of a large number of factors with which the search engine determines the value of your WordPress website. This algorithm is anything but simple, it now consists of more than 200 factors. It is therefore impossible to take all factors into account, but there are a number of factors that can give you an edge over the competition.
1. Website speed
The loading speed of a website is a very important factor for the ranking. The faster, the better. There are several ways to improve the loading time of a website. Think, for example, of optimizing javascript and reducing CSS files.
Do you want to make your WordPress faster? Check out our blog about how you can make your WordPress faster. If you are curious about our services, we also offer WordPress Optimization .
2. Quality content
Not only the length of the content on your website is important, but also its quality. Nowadays, a lot is still being taken over from each other, while Google loves new and unique content. This shows that you are an authority within your field and that you are relevant. So spend a lot of time on this.
Don’t know how to give your content more quality? Contact our WordPress specialists, they work with WordPress SEO.
3. Responsiveness
Since we don’t just surf via the desktop, it is also important that your WordPress website works on other devices. Google is increasingly relying on mobile first indexing, which determines your ranking based on the mobile version of your website. The new ranking factor is closely related to this.
Page experience as a new ranking factor
Google’s new ranking factor concerns the ‘page experience’, or the user experience on a web page. Google looks at several elements when evaluating the page experience, also known as the new Core Web Vitals:
Website load time
The loading time will be measured by a figure, also called LCP. Google indicates that the loading time is good if it is below 2.5 seconds. You should start worrying if the loading time is longer than 4 seconds.
This way we got the loading time down to 1 second! This is all thanks to WordPress Optimization. Keep in mind that optimizing never stops and you are therefore wise if you purchase a maintenance package .
Interactivity
Responsibility is about how quickly a website responds when a user wants to use an interactive element on the website. This is measured using FID (First Input Delay) and it is good if it is less than 100 ms. If it indicates more than 300 ms for you, then there is work to be done.
Visual stability
Visual stability has to do with the staggering of a page during use. For example, an advertisement that suddenly appears or buttons that shift. This element is measured via CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) and it is good if less than 10% of the page jumps. If your page jumps more than 25%, that is very bad for the user experience.
Experience
The first two elements are nothing new, but next year they will be extra important. On the last point, you may not be able to imagine much. Yet you probably come across it regularly: a website where the layout moves unexpectedly during loading. Such a jump can have a negative impact on the page experience.
The difference between page experience and user experience
It may very well be that you can no longer see the forest for the trees. They are not the simplest terms we throw around. In this blog it is always about page experience, but what is user experience? And what’s the difference?
User experience can be seen as the overall experience of a user on the entire website, or part of the website. Page experience is the user’s experience on a specific page. Page experience is therefore a detail within the entire user experience where the focus is mainly on the visual stability of a web page.
Why is page experience so important?
The fact that Google has announced this update says something about the impact of this. Google is normally quite mysterious about their actions and hardly communicates about their adjustments and updates. This update has been announced and well in advance, so that indicates that this change is something to take seriously.
What can you do to get started with the page experience?
In the menu of ‘Google Search Console’ there is now a new heading ‘site vitality’. In this report, Google shows how your website scores within the new Core Web Vitals based on practical experience. Every URL on your website is scrutinized and with the classifications ‘good’, ‘needs improvement’ and ‘bad’ you can see the status of your web page. In addition, there is also an explanation of what you can change about the points that score poorly.
Have you already looked at how your WordPress website is doing? You can test your website on https://gtmetrix.com/ and on https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. If you want to continue in SEO, but you don’t know how yet. No problem! Take a look at our WordPress SEO service and we will help you further in storming the first page.
Contact us
Are you unable to shorten your loading speed or do you have a question about how you can better serve your users? Contact our WordPress specialists, we have already helped many a website with similar problems. If you want to know what we can do for you, call us on 030 20 72 488 or start the chat.
