Is Your Website Ready for the Next Major Google Algorithm Update?

At Cyber Sushi Design, we like to keep you in the loop about developments that can affect your website and how it ranks to avoid any detrimental effects on your business.

Google has announced that their next algorithm update will roll out in May 2021. Dubbed the Page Experience update, it will look to rank sites based on how users interact with your website. So before then, your business should look to address what this means for your website and small business. Here we provide all the information you will need to know to prepare your website.

What is a Google Algorithm?

Simply put, a Google algorithm is a set of complex criteria against which to rank websites. This set of rules ranks sites to deliver them in order of relevance when returning search results. Google releases thousands of algorithms a year. Most of these releases will not have a significant impact on your website. Core algorithms are not released very often but they do have more impact. These updates require businesses to take time to understand what the implications to their websites could be.

What will the Page Experience Update involve?

The focus of this update will be user experience and will include existing search criteria, so ask yourself:

• Is your website mobile-friendly?
• Can visitors browse your website safely?
• Is your web address prefixed with HTTPS? (This ensures secure communication between your website and the browser.)
• Do intrusive interstitials impede the experience of your website? (Interstitials are pop-up adverts that can block the content of your web page and require visitors to dismiss them.)

Google intends to implement a series of metrics that they refer to as Core Web Vitals. These are a series of benchmarks that are essential to measuring and enhancing the user experience of websites.

Such metrics include page loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. As a website owner, you need to:

• Ensure optimal performance of your website across mobile devices.
• Improve page loading speeds.
• Ensure the navigation of your website is intuitive.
• Include call-to-actions.
• Avoid using too many pop-ups across your site.
• Ensure images are uploaded with Alt Text.
• Make sure your content is structured appropriately.
• Focus on engaging with visitors to your website.

What does this all mean?

Let us break this down for you. To continue to rank well in Google, you need to focus on improving page load speeds, responsiveness, user experience (UX), mobile usability, and security.

• Web pages should be simple.
• Google expects pages to load within 3 seconds.
• Alt Text for your images should describe what the image represents. They should be short and specific and include relevant keywords.

While this is important to implement before the release of the core update in May. Content remains key to the ranking of your website. Google wants you to remember:

“ Great page experience doesn’t override having great page content.”

If your website content needs some attention to rank well, the team at Cyber Sushi Design can help. Our latest brand Writeable will shortly be launching for all your content writing needs. Writeable creates writing to rank, content to connect. Aiming to emphasise the importance of content writing and the role it plays in determining page rankings.

Get in touch with Cyber Sushi Design on 01494 356 778 if your website requires any updates ahead of the core update release in May.