Google: No Points For Trying To Provide A Good User Experience

Aug 10, 2023 - 7:31 am 6 — by

Boy Racing Car Fast Google Logo

Google's John Mueller said trying to provide a good user experience but not succeeding will not result in any ranking benefit in Google Search. John said during office hours at the 9:29 minute mark, "What matters for Google is not that a website is attempting to give users a good page experience but rather if it's actually giving users a good page experience."

Having good intentions and working on page experience might be a good thing, but it doesn't mean that Google cares. Google looks at the output, the results, not what you are trying to do but rather what you have done.

Keep in mind, this all should be looked at with a grain of salt. Page experience, core web vitals, are a small ranking factor that is likely not to move the needle much with your actual rankings in Google Search.

Here is the video embed:

The question was "Does Google treat link prefetch, pre-render, DNS resolve, etc, tags as a signal that the website is attempting to give its users a good user experience?"

John responded saying, "So when these things are used correctly so that your users benefit from a better experience, then this will be reflected in real user metrics for the Core Web Vitals and as such be considered in search an well.

What matters for Google is not that a website is attempting to give users a good page experience bur rather, if it’s actually giving users a good page experience.

Make sure that what you implement is functional."

Forum discussion at Twitter.

 

Popular Categories

The Pulse of the search community

Google Search Volatility

More Details

Search Video Recaps

 
Video Details More Videos Subscribe to Videos

Most Recent Articles

Google Search Engine Optimization

Google Adopts New AI Training Control

Oct 30, 2026 - 12:50 pm
Bing SEO

Microsoft Bing New AI New Controls With AI Training From AI Search Grounding

Oct 30, 2026 - 12:15 pm
ChatGPT Ads

ChatGPT Gets Wider Ads, Multi-Image Ads Expands, Expansion & More

Oct 30, 2026 - 11:17 am
Search Forum Recap

Daily Search Forum Recap: October 30, 2026

Oct 30, 2026 - 10:00 am
Search Video Recaps

Search News Buzz Video Recap: Google Volatility X2, Spam Updates, AI Overviews Everywhere, Blending Ads & Organic, Google & Microsoft Earnings

Oct 30, 2026 - 8:01 am
Google Search Engine Optimization

Google AI Overviews & AI Mode 0.9% Click-Through Rate, Opt Out Study Says

Oct 30, 2026 - 7:51 am
Previous Story: Google Ads API Version 14.1 Now Available