Make Page Experience Signals a Top Priority .

If binge-watching has stopped you from writing down your Q4 Marketing Goals, maybe knowing that Google’s page experience signals in ranking went fully operational for mobile devices in August 2021 (among other good stuff) motivates you to pause Squid Game. Remember that page experience is a set of all the signals that measure how users perceive the experience of a website. Including visual appeal, stability, loading time, and of course, content.

With less than two months for finishing the 2021, we are updating websites and revamping our content to meet Google’s new standards for ranking on mobile.

Page Experience Signals

Back in Q1 2021, Google announced that additionally to the new page experience signals, marketers now have to integrate other topics into strategies. Gear up because Google moves towards indexing passages and not only pages, prioritizing those with the best information.

Sure enough, this news made you jump off the couch.

Maybe you’ve heard it through the grapevine (back in October 2019) when Google announced the most significant leap forward in the history of search: The Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT for short (don’t you love how nerdy it sounds?). BERT design aims to understand better the search intent and the context of the queries, moving away from keyword typing and introducing models that process words concerning all the other terms in a sentence, similar to how we usually ask questions.

A revolutionary approach on how the search algorithm sorts the best results for the user, no more stiff titles with no valuable content. Now, the algorithm focuses on content that answers the search question and the quality of it.

What does it mean for marketers?

So, imagine layer after layer of good stuff, pretty much like a Scooby-Doo sandwich (please do not confuse it with a Shaggy Super sandwich, because seriously? Sardines and marshmallows?). Anyway, back to the topic, imagine an algorithm that understands what the user is looking for (BERT), sorting out high quality websites and looking for the answer in passages, not only pages.

It means offering the user valuable results with the best browsing experience.

For us, marketers, this triple-layered strategy means more opportunities to stand out from the competition. Think how this algorithm positively impacts digital marketing in significant ways: First, BERT matches the copy to the way people search, focusing on often-search questions, and second, enhances the quality of the content with well-written articles aiming for longer, more conversational phrases.

For inbound marketers, this is gold right at the palm of our hands ready to craft the most creative campaign to attract the right client.

Goals to Focus On

First, goals should be thinking beyond keywords and phrases typically associated with the business and considering more conversational phrases that customers might be using to find the product or service. Integrating natural language across digital touch points and creating responses that meet nuanced customer needs.

Second, making sure the business’ website meets Google page experience signals doing a site-wide audit of the pages and see the room for improvement.

Third, don’t wait until May for Google to roll out the changes I talked about above, work proactively with your team reviewing top-ranking pages, prioritize those with good search volume, and focus on strategic content that brings value to the business.

GR Tips

• Prioritize integrating new page experience signals additionally to Core Web Vitals and stay away from cookie-cutter SEO with poor information.
• Offer the best experience throughout the buyer’s journey and digital touch points in your inbound marketing.
• Use bold fonts highlighting solutions and key topics to attract more users into your website on search results.

What are GR Notes?

We believe valuable content should be accessible, that is why we created GR Notes, a free resource with important information for marketers, businesses, and creative geniuses who want to keep ahead of the competition.

Every month we will be sharing highlights, key points, and foreseeable trends on digital marketing topics that matter to you. Think of GR Notes as flashcards, but way better.

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