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In May 2020, Google detailed plans to include three measurable page experience signals in their ranking metrics. They called this group of signals “Core Web Vitals”. These metrics are beginning to have an impact, so what are they, and what does it mean to you? Let’s decode!
The Vital Details
For a long time, Google has been working on ways to measure and rate the experience visitors have when visiting a website. You may have used some of these tools like PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, and others to “score” your webpages. These tools are similar to testing done in a lab, and not always consistent with an actual visitor’s experience.
Core Web Vitals are a group of signals Google is measuring based on real-world visitor experiences collected from Chrome users. Google wants to establish fundamental and universal page experience metrics based on actual visitor experiences, and they are starting with three:
- Loading (Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP)
- Interactivity (First Input Delay, or FID)
- Visual Stability (Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS)
Decoding The Signals
If your eyes just glazed over a little bit, don’t worry, we’ll break it down point by point. Keep in mind there are well over 200 signals Google uses, so these three are important but so are the others. As always, Google will continue adding and adjusting signals in the Core Web Vitals and other categories.
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Loading
- (Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP)
- In a nutshell, this metric is measuring how long it takes for the main focus of the page content to load. For an eCommerce product page as an example, this could be how long it takes to load the large primary item image. For content-heavy pages, it’s more likely to be how long the text takes to become visible. Google considers an LCP of fewer than 2.5 seconds ideal.
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Interactivity
- (First Input Delay, or FID)
- This signal measures, for example, how long it takes to begin typing into a field like a search box after clicking or tapping on it. Visitors generally expect this to be fairly instant, so Google considers less than 100 milliseconds to be ideal for FID.
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Visual Stability
- (Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS)
- Have you ever tried to read a news article, but ads keep popping in and you lose your place because what you were reading moves? It’s not fun! This metric measures how much your page content moves after a visitor might expect it to be finished loading. Dynamic content from apps or Javascript can cause the layout to move, and Google would prefer that movement to be as little as possible. They have more of a proprietary scale to measure this metric, with “0.1 or less” being ideal. There appears to be some debate, even internally at Google, about how sites can best prevent layout shifts on dynamic content. We expect this signal especially to evolve over time.
Fixing The Core Issues
How worried should you be about these new signals? It depends on your current user experience since these metrics are measuring things you can see for yourself browsing your site. Unlike behind-the-scenes signals like backlink quality, these are measuring the field experience visitors using Chrome are having to browse your site right now.
If the focal point of your page takes a long time to load, or there’s lag trying to type into a box, or page content is moving around enough to annoy visitors, it’s worth working on providing a better experience. With or without Core Web Vitals, improving the visitor experience should always be a priority! Read more about how to measure the Core Web Vitals in Google’s Search Console help.
There are a lot of signals Google uses to rank your site, and these are currently in the spotlight. As with PageSpeed or Lighthouse, perfect scores are not the goal nor the sole litmus test for ranking well. You need to make sure you are optimized in all areas of your site from backlinks and keywords to content.
EYStudios is always here to help provide consultation to optimize your site to its full potential. Give us a call at 678-402-6378 or email info@eystudios.com.