This for me is quite interesting as I’ve spent many a late evening trying to figure out what Google wants - and if I’m honest I’m still not that clear.
That said, if we use Pagespeed as a gauge, then these results are somewhat reassuring.
Baring in mind, I’m literally lifting data from Classic into Elements and I have done zero tinkering, (other than to get some kind of an equivalent live in the new app within a few days).
Better Google page speed scores don’t automatically result in more page visits. Google likes fast sites, because users prefer fast loading sites. When people have to wait several seconds for a site to load when they search for information, they probably will bounce back and click another link. Unless of course they know your site and are willing to wait because the visit on a regular basis anyway.
Same goes for the content above the fold. If the first section they see doesn’t click and interests the visitor, they won’t bother to scroll down.
Whether people will visit your page or not mostly depends on the content and the user’s search terms. Thus good content, with a well thought SEO strategy and great accessibility is more important imho - even though some people nowadays claim that SEO is dead because of AI - but where does AI get it’s information from?
I have old non-responsive sites with no ssl that rank better than competitors sites that are responsive, have ssl and are much faster - because our content is better for the search term.
Cant wait to get the conversion project finished in Elements and see how it does.
The biggest trick is to be interesting enough that the snippet or URL the AI references is worth getting the click. If the AI summary gives every thing I need I rarely visit the citations.
