Core Web Vitals: Preparing for the Update
Posted on June 9, 2021
Key Takeaways
Page Experience Update
Understanding Page Experience
- “A set of signals that measure how users perceive the experience of interacting with a web page”
- Uses real-world data as well as existing Search signals
When Does It Roll Out
- Beginning in “mid-June” and will be complete by the end of August 2021
- Will be a gradual rollout
How Will This Impact Rankings?
- “While page experience is important, Google still seeks to rank pages with the best information overall”
- “Great page experience doesn’t override having great page content”
Core Web Vitals – What Are They?
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- How quickly a page loads the latest element
- More accurate measure of how a user perceives a page’s load time
- LCP score should be under 2.5 seconds
- Considers text, images, and videos (including backgrounds)
First Input Delay (FID)
- How long before a user can interact with your page
- Load time is great, but if they can’t do anything with your page, that’s a problem
- FID should be under 100ms
- How quickly can a user click a link, tap a button, or use a JavaScript control and have it respond
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
- Total amount of time of these layout shifts is your CLS
- Ever tried clicking something, only for it to move because something loaded late?
- CLS should be under 0.1
- Probably the trickiest to address if you have an issue
- Rely on the GSC report and tools like DevTools and Lighthouse to identify and address
Core Web Vitals – What to Do
Check Your Search Console Report
- If Google is telling you there’s a problem, fix it!
- Review your report and prioritize the pages that were listed as “poor”, then focus on “need improvement”
Use PageSpeed Insights
- Test the problem pages
- Gives you field data (what they’ve seen over the past few days)
- Gives you lab data – tested in that moment
- Provides opportunities to make the page faster
- Also identifies issues with Core Web Vitals
- Locate the issue and work with a developer to address them
Return to Search Console
- Report that the issue has been addressed (Validate the fix)
- Google will review and notify you when the issue has been resolved
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