Google Page Experience has recently released its newest update in mid-2021. This new metric is called Core Web Vitals and will become an integral contributor to the search ranking algorithm. Essentially, while quality content is important, Google is now also placing greater emphasis on technical SEO.
What is Page Experience?
Page experience refers to a set of metrics that measure how users perceive their experience of a web page. These metrics include mobile-friendliness, site security, safe-browsing experience, and no intrusive interstitials.
Source: WordStream
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of 3 sub-metrics which measures the user experience on the website. Each “vital” metric has a technical name. However, it is easier to understand them as measuring the loading speed, interactivity and visual stability. (image below)
Source: web.dev
1.Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) : Measures loading speed performance. This marks the point in time when the page’s main content (largest visible image or text block) is fully loaded. A fast LCP is indicative that the page is useful.
2.First Input Delay (FID) : Measures the load responsiveness or interactivity of a page. For example, FID measures the time when a user clicks on a link to the time the browser is able to process the request to respond to the interaction. If the content is loaded, but the page remains unresponsive, this will be frustrating for users.
3.Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) : Measures the visual stability of the page. Simply put, Google wants to know how much the elements on your page are jumping around as new content is being loaded. For instance, you may have experienced a blog page where the text or images started unexpectedly shifting around as you scroll down to read further. This instability greatly affects the user experience.
Tools To Measure Core Web Vitals
Google understands the importance of measuring the impact of these new metrics to your website. This is why all of Google’s popular tools allow you to measure, diagnose and also fix the user experience issues:
- PageSpeed Insights
- Chrome DevTools
- Search Console Tool
- Lighthouse
- Web Vitals Chrome extension
- Web.dev measure tool
Importance of Core Web Vitals
Your website’s core web vitals results directly impact your on-page SEO performance. If you remain unaware of these metric, you might end up having to invest more in your paid search campaigns so as to overcome the poor core web vitals performance.
The introduction of core web vitals signals are guided by the fields of human-computer interaction (HCI) and user experience (UX). The primary objective of these signals is to ensure that users enjoy a smooth journey. Another reason is to ensure user satisfaction with the top results provided in the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).
Having conducted analysis on millions of pages, Google has reported positive impacts on businesses. For example, a good core web vital results reduces page abandonment by 24%, particularly for ecommerce sites. Thus, it is undeniable that core web vitals are an integral part of page experience and user experience. As Google has implemented a user-centric approach as part of its ranking algorithm, business should follow suit too.
Conclusion
One of the most effective ways to grow online traffic and drive conversions and sales is to provide a smooth journey for consumers. Search engines are designed to serve its users. Thus, it makes perfect sense that these search engines will also prioritise websites that serve the same purpose. Make use of the tools mentioned to identify and diagnose the issues on your website. Ultimately, work on improving your Core Web Vitals scores and you will eventually find that your consumers keep coming back to you for more.
