New Google ranking factor offers opportunities for TYPO3 users

What is it about?

With the Page User Experience, google measures the user-friendliness of websites. The company bases this on four factors:

1. Pagespeed
2. User Annoyance
3. Security
4. Accessibility

The Page User Experience was introduced last summer as a ranking factor for mobile search. This means that the better the values, the better the ranking of the page on Google. As of February 2022, Page UX is now also to apply to the desktop area.

Specifically, the following points, among others, will be considered for this:

• how long do visitors have to wait until the page is loaded?
• when is the first content readable (First Contentful Paint)?
• when can visitors interact with the page for the first time, e.g. make an input or click on a link (First Input Delay)?
• how much shifts occur during the page layout, which can lead to e.g. wrong click behavior of visitors(Cumulative Layout Shift)?
• is the data traffic between visitors (or their browsers) and web servers secure, i.e. is the site encrypted via https?
• are there any signs of malware on the server or the possibility that unwanted links(e.g. illegal content, 404 errors) are clicked or even downloads are performed
• are there annoying interstitals on the site, i.e. advertising pop-ups or other components that sgnificantly overlay the content?
• How accessible is the site: is it also readable and usable for people with access restrictions? Here Google refers to studies according to which 1 billion people - or 15% of the world's population - may have certain restrictions in using websites due to disabilities.

What do I have to do now?

The good news up front: TYPO3 offers fast delivery of website content by default due to its powerful cache algorithms. Unfortunately, however, this does not guarantee good "Core Web Vital" values.

An important measure to improve the page user experience is to optimize the loading times of websites, which we describe in our Pagespeed article.

Also make sure that your TYPO3 system is up-to-date (have a look at the current TYPO3 versions) and that the website is GDPR compliant.

Avoid intrusive (advertising) pop-ups. Google explicitly points out that popups for legal reasons (e.g. cookie consent box) and small infoboxes (e.g. for temporary changes in opening hours) do not have a negative impact on the ranking.

Regularly check the validity of your outgoing links with the link validator (invalid links within TYPO3 are automatically deactivated and thus do not lead to a 404 error).

Content remains important

Keep in mind that Page UX Signal is only one of hundreds of criteria that determine your search engine ranking. User intent still plays a crucial role in search. Therefore, it is very important to provide quality content. The most sustainable way to be ranked as high as possible on google is to publish relevant, exclusive and up-to-date content.