User experience became a new Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) criteria in May 2021, when the Google algorithm update was launched. The changes to the Core Web Vitals aim to support websites offering the best user experience by giving them the appropriate search ranking.
What is UX and why should you care about it?
User experience qualifies the overall experience perceived by the user when using an interface, a digital device or more generally when interacting with any device service.
Before becoming a customer, your prospect is a user: if they have a positive experience on your site and it matches the way that they search for a product, you will increase the rate of interaction with them and they will be much more likely to make a purchase.
In addition, it’s important that you note that for an e-commerce UX naturally corresponds to maintaining a special relationship with the user. He or she will feel understood and engaged by your website.
The 7 criterias for an optimized user experience:
One of the main skills of a retailer developing an e-commerce website is to understand his consumers’ needs: What do they need? When and where do they need it? But also: How do they need it? That’s when the 7 criteria come into play!
You probably already know some of the 7 criteria as they have been a part of the Google algorithm since 2015/2016. They concern either the optimization of site access from a smartphone (responsive design for an ideal screen size, absence of intrusive interstitial ads interrupting navigation) or navigation security (https, presence of malware…).
According to Google, these criteria are essential and reinforce the need for a mobile-first approach when redesigning a site:
– Mobile Friendly means that the menu, images and texts automatically adapt to any screen size.
– Safe Browsing protects devices by showing warnings to users when they attempt to navigate into dangerous sites or download dangerous files.
– HTTPS or HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure is a secure extension protocol that allows users to access web pages through a browser.
– No Intrusive Interstitials allows a smooth user experience, avoiding disrupted navigation by unwanted stimuli such as aggressive pop-up ads.
The next criteria are derived from a series of indicators known as web vitals. They make it possible to measure, quantify and translate into a score the quality of the user’s experience on a web page, particularly in terms of page loading, interactivity and page content stability.
The remaining 3 indicators, also known as Core Web Vitals:
– The LCP, Largest Contentful Paint, is an indicator of how long it takes the browser to display the first part of the content of a web page. A good score is between 0 and 2 seconds.
– The FID, First Input Delay, is related to page interactivity. It measures the reaction time of a website after a user’s first interaction (clicks on a button, taps a link etc.). An FID of more than 100 milliseconds is detrimental to the user experience.
– The CLS, Cumulative Layout Shift, checks the visual stability of a page during its loading time using a complex algorithm. The score should be between 0 and 1, ideally close to 0 in order to de-risk a negative effect on your SEO.
Google provides a number of tools to access the core web vitals of a page and its scoring, such as Lighthouse, Google Search Console, PageSpeed Insights and other indicators to analyse performance in more detail.
Google changed its SEO criteria for Core Web Vitals in May 2021, and many websites have already acted on it.
Google has found a solution to lighten pages and increase your performance, so the algorithm will also be used to define the Top Stories on mobile, without having to be in AMP (Accelerated Mobile Page) format.
This means that everything you need can be found in one solution: the PWA. The Progressive Web App checklist offers high-performance for sites that are close to the application experience and much more.
Front-commerce offers a unique user centric PWA solution created especially for e-commerce websites. Integrating this solution into your business will not only improve your visibility and interaction rate but will also increase return on investment.
Want to know more about Front-Commerce? Contact us today!