Google Core Web Vitals - a ranking factor on Google from May
Google has found that users are more likely to visit websites that offer a good user experience. For this reason, from May they will be updating their search algorithm with Google's so-called Core Web Vitals, which we describe in more detail in this article.
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Google Core Web Vitals - important web statistics
Google is constantly trying to improve the user experience on their site and even more closely reflect users' search and shopping patterns on it.
That's why new updates are not a rarity at Google - but the implementation of Google's Core Web Vitals in May will mean more upheaval than usual for your business, webshop or organization's ranking on Google.
Google Core Web Vitals contains three things:
- Loading experience
- Interactivity
- Visual stability of page content
From May, these criteria will be included in Google's search algorithm. This means that Google will weight the user experience of your website's on-page performance more than before. How long does your website take to load? And is your website stable when people click on it?
For businesses, this means that you should put more effort into analyzing engagement parameters, such as time on page, bounce rate or pages per session. These parameters all say something about the user's experience on the website.
Implications of the update
For a long time, the focus has been on content when it comes to ranking high on Google - and it remains essential for Google's algorithm. However, with the implementation of Google Core Web Vitals comes an increased focus on technical aspects. In other words, it's a more technical than content-based update.
How do you accommodate the changes?
The new update from Google will have an impact on your Google ranking, so how do you ensure your position at the top of Google's search hierarchy continues?
You get your engineers to optimize your website's back-end. Compress images, fix slow views, unused CSS or Javascript, etc. The more user-friendly you can make your site technically, the higher Google will reward you. And you can start right away to get a head start on your competitors.
Google Search Console (GSC)
GSC is a great tool to help you with Google's new update. It even has a tab in the sidebar where you can read "important web statistics" on your different pages.
With GSC, you can retrieve reports on your site statistics and get an idea of which ones you can improve and how necessary these improvements are.
Parameters for Google Core Web Vitals
To improve your Core Web Vitals, there are four parameters that you can tweak. These measure the dimensions of Core Web Vitals - the aforementioned loading experience, interactivity and visual stability of the page's content.
- FCP - First Contentful Paint (loading)
This parameter measures the time it takes for a page to display some form of content on the page after it has started loading. - LCP - Largest Contentful Paint (loading)
This parameter is used by Google to measure the time it takes to load the largest content material on the given page - which most often will also be the most important content on the page. 2.5 seconds or faster is recommended. - FID - First Input Delay (interactivity)
The time it takes for a page to become interactive. In other words, a measure of page responsiveness and determining the experience the user feels when they first try to interact with it. An ideal measurement here is less than 100 ms. - CLS - Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability)
The number of times the visual layout of a page changes suddenly and unexpectedly. This parameter refers to the number of times content on a page has changed and caused the user to lose their place on the page without warning. An ideal measurement here is less than 0.1.
Manage these parameters and you'll experience Google updates as a convenient boost to your online pages.
Possible new brands on your search results
It's a possibility that Google will even introduce labels or tags that mark how good the page experience is for the user on search results in the SERP. In other words, an indicator of how well your site meets the parameters I mentioned above.
And it will also be a relevant tool for the user, because as a study from August showed, barely 15% of current pages will meet the criteria for Google's Core Web Vitals.
In short, there's nothing to do but get started optimizing those all-important web statistics so you're guaranteed a top ranking after the new Google search algorithm optimization takes effect shortly.
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