November 2020: a launch date for page experience and a new Crawl Stats report
Covers November 2020. Part of our search timeline: a month-by-month look at the changes that shaped SEO, AI search, paid ads and social media, written in November 2026 for local businesses with the benefit of hindsight.
Quick answer: In November 2020 Google confirmed that the page experience update, Core Web Vitals included, was due in May 2021 (it was later pushed to June). It also released a much richer Crawl Stats report inside Search Console, showing site owners much more clearly how Googlebot crawls their pages.
This entry is part of our timeline of the search and social changes that have shaped how local businesses win work online, written with hindsight.
What did Google announce in November 2020?
Google gave site owners six months’ warning of the page experience update so they had time to prepare. Separately, the rebuilt Crawl Stats report in Search Console broke crawl requests down by response code, file type and purpose, and flagged host availability problems.
Why it mattered for local businesses
A firm date meant UK businesses could budget for speed work ahead of the update. The new report also made technical issues, such as server errors or Googlebot wasting time on unimportant URLs, much easier to spot without hiring a developer to dig through logs.
What to do about it now
- In Search Console, open Settings, go to the Crawl Stats report and check for any surge in server errors.
- Check Googlebot is spending its time on your key service and location pages, not filters or duplicates.
- Fix slow server response times, which hurt both crawling and visitors.
Frequently asked questions
Where do I find Crawl Stats?
In Search Console, go to Settings and then Crawl stats.
Is crawl budget a worry for a small business site?
Rarely. It mainly matters for large sites with huge numbers of URLs, such as big online shops.
Sources and further reading
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