Google page experience update for desktop now rolling out

Google has begun rolling out the page experience update for desktop web pages and desktop search, a Google spokesperson has confirmed with Search Engine Land. This update will slowly roll out over the next several weeks and be completed by the end of March 2022.

Google did tell us that the desktop version of the page experience update would begin this month and now the company has confirmed it has begun rolling out.

Page experience update for desktop. This update will include all the current signals of the mobile version of the page experience update, outside of the page needing to be mobile-friendly. Google said all of the page experience factors for mobile will be included with the exception of the mobile-friendliness requirement, which is kind of obvious. Here is a chart from Google showing the specific factors:

What is page experience? Google has a detailed developer document on page experience criteria but in short, these metrics aim to understand how a user will perceive the experience of a specific web page: considerations such as whether the page loads quickly, if it’s mobile-friendly, runs on HTTPS, the presence of intrusive ads and if content jumps around as the page loads.

Page experience is made up of several existing Google search ranking factors, including the mobile-friendly update, Page Speed Update, the HTTPS ranking boost, the intrusive interstitials penalty, safe browsing penalty, while refining metrics around speed and usability. These refinements are under what Google calls Core Web Vitals. Please note, Google dropped the safe browsing factor last year from the page experience update.

Search Console tools. Google has released updated page experience reports for desktop a few months ago. You can learn more about that report over here.

Don’t expect drastic changes. Google said with this rollout and this new Google update, do not expect drastic changes. “While this update is designed to highlight pages that offer great user experiences, page experience remains one of many factors our systems take into account… Given this, sites generally should not expect drastic changes,” said Google. We expect the same to be true for the desktop rollout.

Why we care. While I do not believe this page experience update will be a significant update where you will see tons of sites’ rankings drastically change, those working towards improving their page experience have been primarily focused on their mobile pages.

I would not expect major ranking shifts from this rollout and, in fact, if you do see ranking shifts today or tomorrow, I would highly doubt it is related to this update.