While we spend a lot of time focusing on keyword optimization, mobile-experience, and backlinks, Google pays a lot of attention to the on-page experience. Thatโs why theyโve rolled out a new set of signalsย called Core Web Vitals.
These signals will take into account a websiteโs page loading speed, responsiveness, and visual stability.
In this guide, Iโll explain what Core Web Vitals are and help you figure out how it could impact your rankings.
Core Web Vitals: What Are They and Why Should You Care?
Is this simply another scare tactic by Google to make us revamp everything and get all nervous for a few months?
I donโt think it is; I think this will become a serious ranking factor in the coming years โ and for a good reason.
The good news is you may not even have to do anything differently because youโre already providing a high-quality on-page experience for your visitors.
This is essentially what Core Web Vitals are. Itโs a page experience metric from Google to determine what type of experience visitors get when they land on your page.
For example, Google will determine if your page is loading fast enough to prevent people from bouncing. If itโs not, you could face a penalty in ranking and be replaced by a website thatโs loading correctly.
So, now we have the following factors determining the quality of a โpage experienceโ on Google:
- Mobile-friendly:ย The page is optimized for mobile browsing.
- Safe-browsing: The page doesnโt contain any misleading content or malicious software.
- HTTPS:ย Youโre serving the page in HTTPS.
- No intrusives:ย The page doesnโt contain any issues that cover the primary content.
- Core Web Vitals:ย The page loads quickly and focuses on elements of interactivity and visual stability.
Many websites are providing these factors already, and if youโre one of them, you have nothing to worry about.
Googleโs Announcement about Core Web Vitals becoming a Ranking Factor
I took a look at Googleโs press releaseย to see if there was anything that stood out. Google announced that over time, theyโd added factors such as page loading speed and mobile-friendliness, but they want to drive home the importance of on-page experience.
Theyโre looking at upcoming search ranking changes that factor in-page experience. Google says theyโll incorporate these page experience metrics for the โTop Storiesโ feature on mobile and remove the AMP requirement.
Google also says theyโll provide a full six months notice before rolling this out, so it does look like we have some time to think about it and get ourselves on track.
Core Web Vitals Metrics
As a website owner, developer, or builder, you consider a million different factors when putting together your website.
If youโre currently working on new sites or making updates to existing ones, youโll want to keep these three factors in mind going forward.
Loading: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint or LCPย refers to your page loading performance. It covers the perceived loading speed, which means:
How long does it take for your website to start displaying elements that are important to the user?
Do you see how this differs from regular page loading speedย now?
Thereโs a huge difference here.
For example, itโs common practice to keep the most important information and eye-catching content above the fold, right?
Well, thatโs no use to anyone if it takes all the interesting โabove the foldโ six seconds to load.
We see this all the time when sites have images or videos above the fold. They generally take up a lot of space and contain important pieces of context for the rest of the content, but theyโre the last to load, so it leaves a large white space at the top of the screen.
Google is paying attention to this because they realize itโs causing a lot of people to bounce.
The general benchmark for Google is 2.5 seconds. This means that your website should display everything in the first frame (above the fold) in 2.5 seconds.
Keep in mind that webpages are displayed in stages. So when the final elements of the top of your page loads, that would be your LCP. A slow LCP = lower rankings and penalties and a fast LCP = higher rankings; itโs as simple as that.
Interactivity: First Input Delay (FID)
The First Input Delay or FIDย is the responsiveness of your webpage. This metric measures the time between a userโs first interaction with the page and when the browser can respond to that interaction.
This web vital might sound a little complex, so letโs break it down.
Letโs say youโre filling out a form on a website to request more information about a product. You fill out the form and click submit. How long does it take for the website to beginย processing that request?
Thatโs your First Input Delay. Itโs the delay in between a user taking action and the website actually moving on that action.
Itโs essentially a measure of frustration for the user. How many times have angrily hit a submit button over and over because itโs taking forever?
This is a huge UX metric because it can also be the difference between capturing a lead or a sale.
Chances are, someone is taking action because theyโre interested in whatever it is youโre offering. The last thing you want to do is lose them at the finish line.
Visual Stability: Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Cumulative Layout Shiftย refers to the frequency of unexpected layout changes and a web pageโs overall visual stability.ย
This one is straightforward, and I have a perfect example.
Have you ever scrolled through a website, saw something interesting, went to click on it, but right at the last second, a button loads, and you end up clicking that instead?
Now you have to go back and find what you were looking for again and (hopefully) click the right link.
Or, where youโre reading a paragraph, and buttons, ads, and videos keep loading as youโre reading, which keeps bumping the paragraph down the page, so you have to keep scrolling to read it.
These are signs of a poor on-page experience, and Google is factoring these issues as they strive to provide the best experience for users.
Going forward, the focus is on mimicking an โin-personโ experience online. As more and more stores shut down and e-commerce continues to boom, itโs up to store/site owners to provide that in-store experience to their users.
For CLS, the goal is to have a score as close to zero as possible. The less intrusive and frustrating page changes, the better.
The Effects of Core Web Vitals on Content Strategy and Web Development
Now letโs talk about how to improve core web vitals and where you can get this information.
Head to your Google Search Console, where youโll see the speed test was replaced with โCore Web Vitals.โ
When you click it, itโll bring up a report for mobile and one for desktop.
Youโll see a list of poor URLs, URLs that need improvement, and good URLs.
Remember that Google is factoring in the three things we discussed previously to determine the URLโs quality.
So, if you have many poor URLs, it means that theyโre slow to display the most critical content, slow to process actions, and continually offer a poor experience by shifting layout too frequently.
If the URL โneeds improvement,โ it may have a slight combination of two or three of these. A good URL checks out clean.
If you open the report on mobile, for example, youโll see a page that might look like this.
Itโs an example of a website that needs improvement, and the issue here is LCP or page loading performance.
The goal is 2.5 seconds on mobile, and this URL has an average LCP of 2.9 seconds, so this shows clear room for improvement.
If we hop over to the desktop report, here are some examples of poor URLs.
This one has a CLS issue, which means that the website is loading in a way that changes the siteโs physical structure too often.
The goal for this is 0.25, and this webpage has a CLS of 0.55. It also says that 472 URLs are affected by this same issue, so this website owner has a lot of work ahead of them to get this fixed.
Iโm a big fan of these reportsโ transparency because Google makes it easy to locate the problem and fix it.
You can even click the โvalidateโ button when you think youโve fixed the problem, and Google will verify your progress and update the report.
How to Track Your Websiteโs Core Web Vitals
Tracking your Core Vitals is as simple as going into the search console and looking at each web property on a case-to-case basis. Youโll want to go in and play around with this to see where you stand.
How to Improve Core Web Vitals
Once youโve pulled your report, itโs time to make some changes.
Youโll be able to improve the LCP by limiting the amount of content you display at the top of the web page to the most critical information. If itโs not critically important to a problem that the visitor is trying to solve, move it down the page.
Improving FID is simple, and there are four primary issues youโll want to address:
- Reduce third-party code impact:ย If you have a bunch of different processes happening simultaneously, it will take longer for the action to start working.
- Reduce JavaScript execution time: Only send the code your users need and remove anything unnecessary.
- Minimize main thread work:ย The main thread does most of the work, so you need to cut the complexity of your style and layouts if you have this issue.
- Keep request counts low, and transfer sizes small:ย Make sure youโre not trying to transfer huge files.
Improving CLS requires paying attention to size attributes and video elements on all media. When you allow the correct amount of space for a piece of content beforeย it loads, you shouldnโt experience any page shifts during the process.
It also helps to limit transform animations because many of them will trigger layout changes, whether you want them to or not.
Conclusion
Core Web Vitals and SEO go hand-in-hand, and we all know that we canโt ignore any single ranking factor if we want to beat out our competition and keep our rankings.
Do we know exactly how much of an impact core web vitals have on our ranks? No, we donโt. But Google is paying a lot more attention to the on-page experience.
Is your website following best practices for Core Web Vitals? Let us know!
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