Core Web Vitals: Google’s Recent Ranking Factor

They say, if you don’t follow the latest updates by Google, web page rankings won’t follow you either.

Hence, it is a good idea to never miss an update from Google and revamp your website accordingly.

Google recently announced a major Page Experience update.

This blog post talks about the recent update announced by the search engine giant in detail. Let’s get started.

What is Google’s Recent Update About?

Back in 2020, Google announced that a new ranking factor—the Core Web Vitals (CWV) would become a part of Google’s algorithms from mid 2021.

This implies optimizing your website to avoid a drop in web page ranking, according to a few aspects discussed in the section given below.

This year, Google has come up with the Page Experience metrics. These metrics can help website owners quantifiably measure the above mentioned elements to provide a better user experience. Let’s discuss more about this in detail.

What is the Core Web Vitals Update?

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics used to measure a website’s loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

The concept of Core Web Vitals dates back to the time when Google started giving importance to some factors for securing top SERPs ranks. The chronological order went like this:

2014 – A ranking boost to websites using SSL certificates to help improve security.

2015 – Mobile friendliness factors were given preference.

2017 – Google introduced a penalty for sites using intrusive interstitials and pop-ups.

2018 – Websites with great speed while browsing from mobile became a ranking factor.

It is made up of three specific page speed and user interaction measurements: LCP (largest contentful paint), FID (first input delay), and CLS (cumulative layout shift).

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP is the measurement of the time taken for the largest content element of a page to be downloaded.

A few ways to fix LCP problems on most websites are: CSS and JavaScript optimization, image optimization, minify and compress code files, limited and optimized client-side rendering, and optimizing server properly.

2. First Input Delay (FID): FID is the amount of time it takes for a user to actually interact with your page. It is the time taken for the page to respond to clicks, scrolls, or keyboard inputs.

Examples of interactions include:

a. Choosing an option from a menu

b. Clicking on a link in the site’s navigation

c. Entering email into a field

d. Opening up “accordion text” on mobile devices

3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS measures visual stability (i.e., whether or not the page jumps around as the user scrolls through the content). For example, when we fail to define the dimensions for our hero images, the text on our pages appears to be displaced. Thus causing a disruptive content layout ‘shift’ for our users.

To provide a good user experience, pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1 or a minimum of 0.25 to avoid a ‘poor’ score. If it falls anywhere between 0.1 and 0.25, it will come under ‘needs improvement’.

Which Tools Can be Used to Audit Core Web Vitals?

Here are the tools to audit Core Web Vitals:

1. Google PageSpeed Insights: This is an essential tool to analyze a website’s performance and get suggestions on how to make it better.

2. Google Search Console: It provides a Core Web Vitals report that helps you analyze CWV in bulk.

3. Web-vitals JavaScript library: If you are a developer and want to measure Core Web Vitals in JavaScript, this tool will help you.

4. Chrome DevTools: It is a more advanced tool that lets you thoroughly analyze how your site is loading.

5. Lighthouse: This tool provides important diagnostic information for optimizing user experience. It is ideal for creating tests and testing improvements in the lab environment.

Key Takeaway

The most recent update from Google shines a spotlight on user experience in order to determine web page rankings. It makes it important for you to score in the “Good” category in all of the three metrics mentioned above.

Remember that optimizing these metrics is more than just doing effective SEO. These metrics make the website easier to use while fulfilling Google’s Page Experience criteria as well.

Need Help Revamping Your Website According to Google’s Recent Updates? Contact Us!