Site performance plays a huge part in user experience, this is no big secret. However, did you know user experience can influence your position within search engine results?
The overall page experience is now a ranking factor – announced by Google 2020. The update to Google’s algorithm was completed in August 2021.
Core Web Vitals – is a new set of metrics introduced to measure a sites speed and user experience. The metrics include:
- Largest Contentful Paint (Loading)
- First Input Delay (Interactivity)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (Visual Stability)
These new metrics take part in a growing list of existing ranking factors focusing on experience.
A users experience is only as good as the weakest link in the overall package. There are a number of free tools that can help determine a site’s performance score, here are some of our favourites:
What if I get a bad score?
Don’t freak out – it doesn’t mean your site will poorly rank in search results (content is still king). What it does mean is that your site has opportunities to improve on its user experience and those improvements may reflect positively on your search results. Work with your web developer to prioritise which opportunities to action. Not all opportunities are worth pursuing.
Improving the site experience obviously has numerous benefits for the user and ultimately your business. Use these tools to benchmark your site against competitors. Implementing some of the opportunities these tools highlight might be all you need to stand out from the pack.
