Core Web Vitals: What You Need To Know.
What is the Page Experience Update and what are Core Web Vitals?
The first major Google algorithm update of 2021 has arrived. The Core Web Vitals measurements are a part of the Page Experience Update released by Google in their May 2020 blog.
Google stated that page experience ranking signals based upon a set of Core Web Vitals metrics will be applied on all browsers and all devices. This update will most likely have a large impact on ranking factors. Historically, Google has prioritized a site’s mobile friendliness, browsing safety, HTTPS, load speed and other ranking factors. This new set of Core Web Vitals metrics will also be included in the list of items Google checks for page experience.
When will the new metrics take effect?
Through both internal studies and industry research, Google announced in May of 2020 that users prefer sites with great page experience and site speed. In previous years, Google Search has added user experience criteria as factors for organic ranking results. These include items such as mobile friendliness and how quickly pages load. But, this discussion in May of 2020 was a little different. Google announced Core Web Vitals, a new set of metrics that are specifically designed to measure responsiveness, speed and visual stability.
In November of 2020, Google wrote another
blog about the topic with a release date of June 2021 for the Page Experience update and the Core Web Vitals metric system.
What are the new metrics?
Loading | Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): The time it takes for a page’s main content to load.
What does this mean? How quickly do I see the content on the page.
Interactivity | First Input Delay (FID): The time it takes for a page to become interactive.
What does this mean? How long after I tap a target does it take for the screen to respond.
Visual Stability | Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): The amount of unexpected layout shift of visual page content.
What does this mean? When the page is loading - are things shifting around?
What are we doing at Flypaper to work with the new metrics?
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your website is of utmost importance to our Product Specialist Team. Any major changes to the Google ranking algorithm are analyzed by our Team and acted upon.
Here are our top takeaways from the Page Experience update and Core Web Vitals measurements:
- Taking extra precautions on adding large images, image sliders or videos “above the fold”
- Using no more than 2 or 3 fonts throughout a site.
- Avoiding multiple custom or heavy widgets on the same page and moving them below the fold.
》Are you a current client at Flypaper and have questions about Google Algorithm updates? Contact your Campaign Specialist!
》Are you a business owner with questions about improving your online presence in the ever changing world of digital marketing and Google updates? Send us a message
here!
