Businesses Scurry to Adapt Websites in Advance of 2021 Google Changes
According to Google, it slightly changes its algorithm about six times a day to try to deter spammers. However, sometimes Google launches more substantial shifts in its secret formula. These changes can more dramatically impact a company's ability to appear on a listing in the coveted page 1 search engine return page.
At least two such changes will take place in 2021. The first algorithm shift will be in March. The next will be in May.
March Algorithm Change
The March change will be mobile-only indexing. Going forward, only pages that are mobile friendly will be shown in the Google listings. If companies have pages on a desktop site only - and not on their mobile websites, they may still be accessible through links on the desktop. But they will never again appear on the Google search pages. Companies with "skinny" mobile content are scrambling.
Google's Page Experience Update
In May, Google is launching another major algorithm change. This will impact websites that:
• Load slowly (take more than 2.5 seconds to load the "largest contentful paint")
• Respond slowly (take more than 100 milliseconds to be interactive)
• Shift content when loading (like a stutter, the content appears, then jumps or moves)
Businesses can measure these factors as Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console to see how they stack up. Many companies have quite a bit of work to do to get up to speed. Literally.