Google Page Experience Update: Rollout Delayed Until Mid-June

Good news for publishers (or at least good news with a side of “we all panicked to make sure everyone had enough time for a re-crawl, when in reality we could’ve panicked slightly less”):

The slow rollout of the Google Page Experience update we expected in May has now been pushed back to mid-June, according to the Google Search Central Blog.

Since late last year, we’ve been preparing for the Page Experience update, ensuing that publishers and website owners are prepared to meet Google’s latest and greatest metrics.

Just last week, we published a comprehensive Core Web Vitals checklist for bloggers. Please read this as all of the guidance still applies; now you just have a little more time to prepare.

According to Google, the new Page Experience signals — which include Core Web Vitals — will factor into ranking systems beginning in mid-June 2021.

Moreover, the company says Core Web Vitals “won’t play its full role as part of those systems until the end of August.”

Why the two-and-a-half-month ramp-up period? Google likens this to adding flavoring to food you’re preparing gradually, rather than all at once. In other words, a gradual rollout allows the company to monitor the new Page Experience for any unexpected or unintended issues.

Google says its adjusted rollout schedule was made in part to give publishers more time to make changes with Page Experience in mind. While we can all breathe a little easier thanks to the new timeline, we encourage you to prepare for the rollout as soon as possible, particularly if you need Google to re-crawl your pages.

What Does the Page Experience Update Entail?

As we’ve discussed at length, the Page Experience update will consider several aspects of site performance that are already ranking factors but will now be under this new, rebranded umbrella — mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS and making sure there are no intrusive interstitials.

The big change is that it will also include the three Core Web Vitals metrics:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
2. First Input Delay (FID)
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Google Chrome’s updating of CLS measurements will also be reflected in the Page Experience update. Again, please see the links above for more on all of these metrics.

Beyond Core Web Vitals and their importance regarding pagespeed, as part of this update, AMP formatting is no longer required for posts to appear in previously AMP-only / Top Stories carousels.

This means not only will a better Page Experience help you improve search results across the board, but passing scores open up the possibility of appearing in areas previously off limits.

It’s a tremendous opportunity, although as we mentioned during our Core Web Vitals Facebook Live last week, Page Experience remains one of many factors that Google takes into account.

Writing great content should always come first. Without that, none of this matters.

On our end, Mediavine will do its part to keep you updated, solve for potential problems and make our products, themes and scripts the fastest, most lightweight and most efficient on the web.