Google’s “Page Experience” algorithm update is expected this month, June 2021. But, what you need to know is that you shouldn’t expect a major fluctuation in the rankings as of now!
We believe that Google will be rolling out the update carefully, as suddenly shaking up the ranking scene will draw unwanted attention to their powerful monopoly on search. Keeping this in mind, you can expect them to implement gradual changes over time. For now, relevancy will rule the ranking game!
Here are a few important tips on how to respond to the Core Web Vitals ranking signal going LIVE.
Reduce JavaScript (JS) Execution – If your report shows a poor FID score, consider reducing and optimizing your JS execution. As per Google, one of the ways to reduce the execution is by deferring unused JS. Start by cutting down unused JS, which can be done using code splitting.
Implement Lazy Loading – Implementing lazy loading is essential if you display images on your site. With lazy loading, your site’s UX and core web vitals score will remain unharmed. For sites with heavy elements, such as images, animations, or videos, lazy loading is considered a must. It allows for the loading of images as users scroll down through the page, without compromising on the overall website loading speed. Lazy loading offers many other benefits, including:
- Improves site performance
- Limits bandwidth usage
- Improves your site’s SEO
- Reduces bounce rate by keeping visitors on the page
Optimize & Compress Images – For some websites, the largest element is images. Optimizing images will make your page significantly lighter, thus improving several factors:
- Loading speed
- LCP score
- UX
- Search engine rankings
There are a lot of free tools available that let you compress your images, and compression won’t affect the quality of your images. Always be sure to save landscape images in .jpg format and graphics in .png format.
Provide Proper Dimensions for Images & Embeds – A CLS score below 0.1 is considered to be poor. To improve your CLS score, you need to have your dimensions in place. Setting proper width and height helps the browser allocate the correct amount of space on the page while the element is loading.
Also, make sure to set proper dimensions for embeds, like when inserting videos from YouTube into your site. At times, the video might look proper on the backend, but it may end up looking way too big or messy on the front end. See to it that the video you insert goes well with the interface of your site.
Improve Your Server Response Time – Google says, “The longer it takes a browser to receive content from the server, the longer it takes to render anything on the screen. A faster server response time directly improves every single page-load metric, including LCP.”
Most importantly, a long server response time can negatively affect your SEO and UX. Google suggests that your server response time be lower than 600 milliseconds. To measure server response time, use Time to First Byte (TTFB). But before you begin, note down the details on your server’s current performance so you can compare the results later on.
- Check how fast is your web hosting.
- Use CDN (Content Delivery Network) for your site.
- Review your plugins.
To Summarize It All
What you really need to do is pay very close attention to your competitors. You do not necessarily have to meet or exceed Google’s Core Web Vitals guideline scores, but rather meet or exceed your competitors’ scores. Next, you should focus on the content quality of your site and its relevance in terms of the search terms you’re looking to rank for.
Need help? Get in touch with our experts for assistance.