We now have an official date for when Google will be bringing the page experience update factors/signals to desktop. Google said it will start the rollout in February 2022 and complete that rollout by the end of March 2022. The same factors, outside of mobile friendliness, will be used for the desktop version.
Google told us this was coming at Google I/O and it is indeed officially coming.
Jeffrey Jose from Google said "we'll begin using page experience as part of our desktop ranking systems beginning in February 2022. The rollout will be complete by the end of March 2022. This ranking launch will be based on the same page experience signals that we rolled out for mobile earlier this year."
Here is a chart of the factors included in this update compared side by side with desktop to mobile:
For the desktop page experience update this includes:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
- First Input Delay (FID)
- HTTPS Security
- Absence of intrusive interstitials
As a reminder, the page experience update no longer considers safe browsing - so for mobile, it looks like this:
For desktop, remove the mobile:
Google Search Console will be updated to have a revised "Search Console report" to support desktop "which will launch before desktop becomes a ranking signal," Google said.
Also when a site has separate desktop and mobile URLs with an appropriate configuration, the desktop signal is based on the URLs that desktop users see.
Also Malte Ubl from Google said this includes "laptops, tablets, and desktops."
Page experience (with Core Web Vitals) as a ranking factor in Google Search is coming to laptops, tablets, and desktops in February 2022 https://t.co/oVFF0W2Zih
— Malte Ubl (@cramforce) November 4, 2021
All metrics and factor are the same (minus mobile friendliness)
Oh, and don't worry - this update won't have much of an impact on your rankings. Google said before "as we have said before, 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. In addition, because we’re doing this as a gradual rollout, we will be able to monitor for any unexpected or unintended issues."
Forum discussion at Twitter.
