With more than 91% of market share, Google is the most used search engine in France. Knowing that it is rare to consult results other than those of the first page, optimizing its ranking is a key issue. Natural results can therefore be negatively impacted: a well optimized site can be better referenced than a more relevant site.
However, Google has not said its last word on the subject yet and has announced the change of its algorithm, in May 2021, in order to favour the catch of the Essential Web Signals and more specifically, the time it takes for a site to load, its interactivity and the stability of the content while it loads. Google already gives advice on this subject on its Google Search Central platform.
One of the objectives of this approach is to counter cases where domain names that were previously exploited and well placed on the podium of search engine results have fallen back into the public domain and have been retrieved by domainers to resolve to parking pages. These names that no longer present attractive content for Internet users should not be the first to appear in the list of results.
Sources:
Emarketerz.fr, 20 mai 2020, Parts de marchés & classement des moteurs de recherche les plus utilisés en 2020, S. Fakir
Google Search Central, SEO pour les utilisateurs expérimentés, Comprendre la convivialité des pages dans les résultats de recherche Google
Domain Name Wire, 10 nov. 2020, « Page experience » to impact Google search rankings starting in May, A. Allemann