When people think of Google, they think of search. However, at its core, Google is a user experience provider. Everything Google has and has accomplished is owed to their keen eye on user experience. Think about why Google is Google today. The answer is that Google delivered the most accurate search results to users in the most presentable format. They gave users a better experience. This is a foundational piece to the Google empire.
When Google launched its paid search platform, they changed the way ads were delivered. Instead of delivering ads based on a straight ad auction, Google implemented an algorithm that factored in an ad’s quality along with bids. The algorithm allowed Google to show ads that were more targeted to user intent. This resulted in higher ad click through ratios and more revenue. While delivering more revenue was a desired outcome, it should not be lost that delivering users content closely aligned to their intent is a better user experience.
Google has always been motivating 3rd party sites to adjust site content in certain ways. Those of you familiar with SEO efforts are keenly aware of how content needs to be presented in order to gain a foothold in Google’s organic rankings. Over the last few years Google has evolved its algorithm to focus more on the UX of 3rd party sites. Sending searchers to better performing 3rd party sites improves Google’s UX, of course.
As mobile became more popular, Google developed parts of its algorithm to take into consideration “Mobile Friendliness”. Google launched a tool to help site developers conform sites to Google’s vision of mobile UX – Mobile-Friendly Test. With the rapid adoption of mobile devices for everything digital, the UX of mobile sites is of keen interest to Google.
Google has also pushed for sites to become safer for end users. Google included https protocol as part of its ranking algorithms. In 2019 Google took things a step further with its Chrome browser beginning to block certain types of mixed content (mixed content is “http content” loaded into an “https site”) and warn users for other types of mixed content. As Google releases new versions of Chrome, more types of mixed content will be blocked. Again, Google helps developers understand issues by reporting mixed content (and other site issues) in its Search Console tool.
Over the last year, Google’s need for speed has become clear. This is especially true for mobile where limited bandwidth and slow loading pages are an end user’s reality. It has been reported that 63% of total ad spending takes place on mobile and that 52% of ad clicks come from mobile devices. Google understands that as sites load faster, users will interact more with them. That includes purchasing products and filling out leads form – completing the actions that Google’s advertisers set as campaign goals. As advertiser conversion rates improve, advertisers become able to spend more dollars with Google’s advertising services. This of course is no small thing. Google reported 134.81 billion dollars in ad revenue in 2019. A small bump in ad budgets, due to improved speed, is worth billions annually to Google.
To be fair, Google has had its eye on site speed for a long time. It first announced a new ranking algorithm called “Speed Update” in early 2018. Google has long offered a variety of tools to help developers understand, and improve, site speed. Currently, Google offers a tool called PageSpeed Insights to help developers understand how to improve the speed performance of websites. The current version (5) was released in 2018.
Back to the present. Over the last year we have seen tools and reports regarding speed pop up across various Google Platforms. Google Search Console now includes a report called core web vitals. This report primarily looks at various loading metrics associated with a website. Its no coincidence that the sub heading in Search Console Help for the Core Web Vitals report is “Fix poor user experience on your site”.
Google Ads is ever expanding its recommendations section to help advertisers improve their ad campaigns. Google is now letting advertisers know if your landing pages are loading slowly and to consider Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP). As the name suggests, AMPs load fast. Google Ads has also expanded reporting under its Landing Pages section to include a mobile speed score, mobile friendliness CTR and Valid AMP click rate.
Google Analytics now lists a subheading under “Behavior” called “Site Speed”. Site Speed includes a report overview, page timings and user timings reports measuring various speed metrics. There is also a report called “Speed Suggestions”. Suggestions are a pretty unique thing to be found in Google Analytics. The suggestions are just links to the PageSpeed Insights for each webpage in the report. But still, to include this report speaks volumes to Google’s intense focus on speed.
If you spend time in Google’s various tools and platforms, you are going to see reference to site speed. You may not dive into the reports or even understand what they are conveying. But do pick up on the high-level message that Google needs speed and that those sites that deliver it will be rewarded. Sites that do not deliver on speed will slowly disappear. UX demands that.