We will have time to prepare but overall, do not expect this update to be too drastic.
The announcement. Jeffrey Jose announced in his Google I/O talk yesterday and on Twitter. Here is that tweet:
What he said. “I am happy to announce that we are bringing page experience ranking to desktop,” Jose said on the video. “While we’re launching page experience on mobile soon, we believe page experience is critical no matter the surface the user is browsing the web. This is why we’re working hard on bringing page experience ranking to desktop,” he added.
More to come. This is not launching in mid-June with the page experience update. Google said they will keep us updated on when the desktop version will be live so we can prepare for that update as well. Jose said “as always we’ll be providing updated guidance, documentation and tools.”
Mobile. Initially, Google told us this will launch for mobile pages only and desktop pages would not be considered but that is now going to change in the future.
Why we care. While, I do not believe this page experience update will be a significant update where you will see tons of sites see their rankings drastically change, those working towards improving their page experience have been primarily focused on their mobile pages. Now, that you have your mobile pages ready for this update, you can shift focus towards your desktop pages.