Industry Engagement Talk with Google I/O Part 1

“Preparing for page experience ranking” is the first course related industry talk I have attended. It is a talk about how Google Search ranks the different type of websites available on the internet and what is Page Experience, how will it be included in the ranking signal. Lastly, it will discuss how website owner can increase their website ranking to the top.

Below are some of the Key points that I have learnt from this talk:

Link to the talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h00kn5J-F2Q&list=RDCMUCWf2ZlNsCGDS89VBF_awNvA&start_radio=1&t=26s

What is Page Experience

So Basically, Page Experience can be broken up to 4 different pillar which are Loading, User Annoyance, Security & Privacy and Accessibility. The first pillar, Loading is measured by how fast the resource of the page is downloaded and displayed on user’s browser. The second pillar is User Annoyance to calculate the number webpage behavior that might get in the way of the user accomplishing a task. The third pillar is Security & Privacy, to check how safe, secured, and privacy-friendly the webpage is. Lastly, the fourth pillar, Accessibility, is to check how inclusive the webpage is for everyone which include the disabilities.

The Metrics used to Measure Page Experience

metrics that are used to measure each pillar which are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), No abusive interstitials, HTTPS, No safe browsing flags, and mobile friendliness. First, LCP is a metric that reports the render time of the largest image of text block visible within viewport. Second, FID measures the time the user first interacts with the page like clicking on a button/link to the time when the browser is actually able to begin processing the given handlers in response to the interaction. Third, CLS measures the total sum of all the individual layout shift scores for every unexpected layout shift occurs on the page. Fourth “No abusive interstitials” is used to detect the presence and use of interstitials that are user-hostile. Fifth, for security and privacy reason, website is delivered using HTTPS protocol which is a required field so users can browse the internet confidently without worrying about cyber-attacks. Six, no safe browsing flag helps to identify and mitigating web-based threat by warning users of potential harmful site. Lastly, mobile friendless measure how effective the pages are on small screen mobile phone.

Suggestions to Improve Website Page Experience

Use Search Console a page experience report that offers a holistic view of their website such as percentage of URLs with good page experience.

Future Plans for Google Search

Google will be planning to implement top stories feature on google search to ensure high quality news articles are surfaced for users.

My Personal Takeaway

Overall, I agree that 4 pillar of page experience is a very important tool to determine whether the webpage has a good user experience. I think these 4 pillars of page experience can also be applied to my course immersive media, to create a good gaming experience, the loading process should not be too long, the game should have not unnecessary features that disturb the user from enjoying the game, it should also be well secured, so it does not have cyber-attacks coming in to disturb the gaming experience as well as steal user’s information. Lastly, I think gaming should be inclusive to welcome all type of users and have features that are disability friendly.