Google confirms the Page Experience Algorithm update, which rolled out to mobile search earlier this year, will be applied to desktop search results.

This update is slated to launch beginning February 2022 and will finish rolling out at the end of March 2022.

Here’s what this means for your website.

Google Page Experience Update For Desktop Search

Google’s Page Experience update for desktop search builds on top of the algorithm that launched on mobile in the summer of 2021.

The desktop algorithm update will be built using the same ranking signals as the mobile update.

“This means the same three Core Web Vitals metrics: LCP, FID, and CLS, and their associated thresholds will apply for desktop ranking. Other aspects of page experience signals, such as HTTPS security and absence of intrusive interstitials, will remain the same as well.”

Screenshot from developers.google.com/search/blog, November 2021.

Mobile-friendliness, which is a signal built into page experience for mobile search, will not apply to desktop.

So it’s conceivable you could benefit from the page experience ranking boost on desktop search even if your site isn’t optimized for mobile.

If your site has separate desktop and mobile URLs, the desktop signal is based on the URLs that desktop users see.

Google will soon add a new report to Search Console to help you understand how your desktop pages are performing with regard to the page experience update.

Expect this report to be available before March 2022, as Google intends to help people prepare ahead of time.

Source: Google Search Central

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