Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals: What are they and why should you care?
Do we agree that repainting your car while the engine doesn't run is pretty useless?
Likewise, a slick-looking web design without a website platform that can get it ranked on Google isn't going to get you anywhere either.
While high-quality content is still king, the technical side of your SEO (the guts of how your website platform processes everything) is now even more important.
Core Web Vitals affects your website rankings
Mobile friendliness, security, and users experience are used by search engines to determine whether or not your page is worth ranking.
The webpage load time, for example, is a performance metric that Google has already been considering when determining search rankings.
Now with the addition of these new metrics to their ranking factors list, it's worth your while to start paying more attention not only to page speed but also interactivity and stability on your website.
Google's New Ranking Factors
Google's new ranking factor, Core Web Vitals, includes three metrics: page speed, interactivity, and stability.
Page speed: Largest Content Paint (LCP) is the total time it takes for a webpage to load in seconds or milliseconds.
Interactivity: First Input Delay (FID) is how quickly site users are able to interact with the page content. The delay between when the user first interacts on your site to when the page is able to respond to the interaction is the FID.
Visual Stability: Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is the measure of how much content moves around on a page. This is mostly caused by pop-ups or when an image loads on top of what you're trying to read. Annoying right?
Steps you can take to improve your Core Web Vitals
- Work on optimizing your page's load time:
Keep it under 2.5 seconds. - Check to see if JavaScript or even loading the CSS is delaying interaction
See if they are running in the background and keeping browsers busy and delaying interaction time. Keep this less than 100ms. - Remove the popups
Increase visual stability by not using popups on your site. - Check for broken links
Check that your internal links still work. Are their blog posts that link to pages that no longer exist? - Security
Make sure your site has an SSL installed and your security measures are up to date. - Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
Make sure everyone can access your information no matter what device they are using now with a Mobile-first responsive business website.
These metrics may not have a big impact individually but together they make a big impact.
Tracking your Core Vitals is Easy
Haven't made the time to track your Core Web Vitals? You're not alone.
But it's more important now than ever before because Google has already incorporated these three metrics into their ranking factors!
To help you stay on top of this data and ensure that your site stays in good shape for as long as possible, Google provides tools like PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console to help you keep track of your Core Web Vitals.
Get professional help with your Core Web Vitals
If you're looking for more help with your site's Core Web Vitals, we can provide it.
Our team of web developers is skilled in helping clients achieve ranking on Google without sacrificing the user experience or stability.
