It's been a busy time for Google in the last couple of months. In June they rolled out the Core Web Vitals algorithm update and, as of 1 July, they will be rolling out the second part of that update. It is anticipated that it will take up to 2 weeks for the update to roll out completely. While all that is going on they have also been rolling out their Page Experience Update which will continue rolling out up until the end of August.
What Do These Updates Mean For You?
There have been six Google updates in the past three months and it's likely that you will not really have noticed any impact on your website rankings or performance at all from most of them. However, the Core Web Vitals update in June and its part two in July are the most likely to cause changes in the position of your website.
There have been six Google updates in the past three months and it's likely that you will not really have noticed any impact on your website rankings or performance at all from most of them. However, the Core Web Vitals update in June and its part two in July are the most likely to cause changes in the position of your website.
Some of Google’s earlier core updates, such as Panda and Penguin, have seen huge shifts in ranking performance, whereas others have barely caused a ripple. There’s a reason for all these global updates though. They are implemented to help Google to get better at analysing content and concluding what pages serve as the best answers to users’ search queries. As a result of these updates, Google is better able to determine the best sites to deliver in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), not just based on quality of information but on user experience and accessibility. The effect of the core algorithm updates is to enable Google to prioritise sites that offer best practice SEO implementation and higher quality relevant and optimised content using more accessible, mobile friendly, information architecture, because they are the sites that best deliver high quality user experience and that is the ultimate goal.
If your website falls in rankings from the June/July 2021 update, this does not necessarily mean you have a major flaw in your site (though most sites do have areas in which their SEO could be improved), it could simply mean that your competition has created superior optimised content towards the search query and so have stolen a march on you. The only way to compete is to elevate your SEO game with better content on a more accessible, user-friendly website.
What Impact Can You Expect on Your Website Rankings?
While the impact of the current updates is most likely to be related to the user experience your site offers, specifically around the focus areas of load time, interactivity and visual stability, it is important to optimise your website so that it performs as well as possible in these areas. Optimised performance will help ensure that it does not lose traffic, visibility and ranking position.
Google has suggested that sites that saw a decrease in June may see their position rebalance following this new update, however, that it not guaranteed. Some time ago Google also posted advice on how to help your site perform better overall to offer protection for your site from the effects of algorithm updates. Alongside this, Google’s core update is centred around optimised content. For best user experience, Google ranks content that is relevant to the user’s search query, so having optimised content around a subject will give a website more authority within that digital space. For example, having pillar content that links through to cluster content on a particular subject will give you more visibility within that digital topic area.
We can help you analyse your site health, it's CWV position and what can be done to optimise it in line with the requirements of all of these updates.
Why not get in touch to see what needs to be done to protect and improve your website rankings?
What About The Page Experience Update?
The Page Experience Update is not expected to cause huge ranking changes and will be a very slow roll out. Page experience is just one of the huge number of factors that Google takes into account when ranking a page. However, great page experience isn't only helpful in ranking, it is also key in engagement, reducing bounce rate and driving conversions once the visitor is on the page. Given the overall theme of the recent Google algorithm updates it is clear to see that they are very much focusing on improving user experience and ensuring that the results they deliver in SERPs deliver that high-quality experience.
The page experience update is focused on the UX of a website and uses three signals to understand the usability of a website:
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- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Observed loading speed.
- First Input Delay (FID): Responsiveness and interactivity.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Visual stability.
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How You Can Protect Your Website
Google's advice is a great place to start. They advise in their post that great content is central to building visibility and ranking. They suggest that you analyse your content and ask a series of questions of it in order to assess its level of quality, what may be missing and what you can do to improve it. We can help you use that advice and make sure your site is optimised.
We Can Help Your Site Perform Better
The Innovation Visual team includes a number of skilled and experienced content experts who understand how to audit content effectively and how to use that audit to design and implement the right content strategy for your website.
With experience in the B2B, B2C, Saas and Ecommerce sectors (amongst others) we understand what your site needs to get it ranking competitively, delivering the traffic you need, engaging that audience effectively and converting them at the rate and volume that meets your objectives.
It all starts with a call and a chat, no strings. We'd be happy to show you how we could help and what we have done for other clients. Just contact us here or give us a call on 0333 772 0509. We're looking forward to hearing from you.
