Google Search Algorithm Update – June 2021
The Internet has been buzzing for a while about the latest Google Search algorithm update. While many of the important ranking factors won’t change, there are a few new factors that could have a serious impact on your rankings.
In this post, we’ll take a look at what’s new with the Google Search algorithm in 2021, why this update matters, and how you can prepare to ensure your site continues to rank well.
What’s New With Google Search Algorithm Update in 2021?
By now, you’ve probably heard that user experience matters when it comes to your website. The fact that Google has been stressing the importance of how your website looks on mobile devices and how fast your website pages load is nothing new.
However, with the search algorithm update, the user experience becomes even more important. Namely, in May of 2020, Google announced that they will be introducing three new metrics that monitor the page experience into Core Web Vitals.
These new metrics will measure and evaluate the site in terms of loading, stability, and interactivity.
More specifically, here’s what this means in layman’s terms:
- Loading — loading is focused on how fast your web pages load. According to Google, your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) should be 2.5 seconds or less. LCP simply measures the time it takes for your website to load and your visitors can start using it.
- Stability — the stability metric looks at how much the content on your web page shifts or moves because the page is still loading or has an element that loads at a specific time. For example, if you’re reading an article and the whole paragraph moves down because an ad that was placed before that paragraph finally loaded. Google says that the total Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) should be 0.1 or less.
- Interactivity — lastly the interactivity is measured based on First Input Delay (FID) or the time from when your visitors first interact with a page (such as clicking a button) to the time when the browser can actually begin processing the response to that interaction. The recommended FID is 100 milliseconds or less.
How Does This Algorithm Update Relate To SEO?
So now that you know what the new Search Algorithm update brings, you’re probably wondering how does this update relate to SEO and, more importantly, how will it impact your rankings.
In essence, the metrics listed above will form a scorecard that tells Google how well your website is doing in terms of user experience. The lower you score, the lower Google will rank you in search engine results pages.
How to Prepare For The Core Web Vitals Search Algorithm Update
The new metrics are supposed to gradually roll out across the Internet in mid-June 2021. But don’t worry, there’s still time to prepare. Here are a few tips to keep in mind and start implementing now to get your website ready for the Core Web Vitals Search Algorithm update.
Find Out How Your Site Scores On Core Web Vitals
First, you need to find out how your website scores when it comes to Core Web Vitals. The easiest way to do this is to log into your Search Console account and click on the Core Web Vitals tab under Experience.
You’ll then be able to see how your site is doing in terms of CLS, FID, and FCP as explained earlier in the article.
Take Action On Scores Marked As Needs Improvement Or Poor
Once you get your results, you can click on examples to see which pages need improvement and get insights from the PageSpeed Insights tool. You can then use that report to make the necessary improvements. These may include:
- Reducing the number of JavaScript files
- Minifying or deferring JavaScript files
- Optimizing images
- Changing your hosting or upgrading hosting plan
- Implementing a CDN
- Enabling AMP for your blog posts
- And more
Enlist A Developer’s Help
Some of the improvements and recommendations can easily be done without a developer’s help. For example, optimizing images and properly sizing them for the web is not technically difficult but it can be time-consuming.
However, other suggestions on this list are more technical in nature. As such, you may want to enlist your website developer’s help to ensure they’re implemented properly so you can bring those scores up.
Page content still matters
As you can see, this new Google Search algorithm update definitely places a lot of importance on user experience and website usability. However, that doesn’t mean that you can neglect the quality of your content.
According to Google, page content will still continue to be important. In fact, they will prioritize pages with the best information for the user, even if the page experience is not that great.
If you want to boost your SEO, the main takeaways to keep in mind are:
- When it comes to content quality, pages with the best content but lower scores on Core Web Vitals will outrank those that have the best user experience but poor content quality
- You still need to create high-quality content that answers questions your target audience has and make that information easy to find on your website.
Contact Us
Your website should be your most profitable employee which is why it’s important to take action now and ensure it’s ready for the Google Search algorithm update. We
can help improve your website and prepare it for the update as well as help you improve your SEO rankings for keywords. Contact us today so we can talk about your website needs.
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