Will You Rank on Google in May? Google’s Core Web Vitals Update
Will You Rank on Google In May? Google’s Core Web Vitals Update
This coming May, Google is introducing an important ranking factor that will impact your search engine results. This is called Core Web Vitals. This factor is comprised of three main components that relate to good coding and uploading of your website. These factors directly relate to a good user experience when someone is on your site.
Google has stated that the minimum point for all Core Web Vitals should be met in order to benefit from the associated ranking signal. Without taking part in this new ranking factor, it will be hard for your business to perform and rank well on Google coming May 2021.
Here is what you need to know.
Core Web Vitals: Get In The Know
Core Web Vitals are a set of specific metrics that Google considers important in a site’s overall user experience. It applies to all web pages and should be measured by site owners.
Core Web Vitals are constantly evolving and usually focus on three different aspects.
There a three measurables that Google is using to measure site performance and user experience.
Here Are the Three Core Vitals and What They Rate
Core Web Vitals are made up of three specific page speed and user interaction benchmarks.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Measures loading performance. This means it measures the time that it takes the largest image or text to be visible within your screen at any given time. Your loading time should occur within 2.5 seconds of when your site starts loading.
First Input Delay (FID)
Measure's interactivity. This means the time from when a user interacts with a page (clicks on a link, button, etc.) to the time the browser can process that event (interactivity). Pages should have an FID of less than 100 milliseconds to have a good user experience.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Measures Visual Stability. This comes down to how many items load in different places on your site which then must be moved around as the page loads. This usually happens so fast that it's hard to see with the naked eye. But there probably have been some instances where something appears in one place and when the page finishes loading it’s somewhere else. Your Page should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1 for good user experience.
For each of the three items, Google has determined thresholds of what they deem to be good, okay, and bad (green, yellow, red). </span
To learn more about Google's Core Web Vitals update and how it can impact your business, give our experts a call today!
Why Are Core Web Vitals Important
Google will be making page experience an official ranking factor. Core Web Vitals will be a large component of this ranking factor.
Having a great page experience score will not push you to the #1 spot in Google. There are many other factors that will help you rank but Core Web Vitals is a significant factor of what Google will use.
All three of the Core Web Vitals mentioned above must be met in order to qualify for ranking with the new update rolling out this May 2021.
May’s Ranking Adjustment: What You Need to Know for Your Business
Google may also be introducing a badge in search results for pages that pass Google’s Core Web Vitals. If this is confirmed, then it is extremely important that all page criteria are met or exceeds all three metrics.
The ranking system will follow a green, yellow and red approach. This allows businesses and Google to know how the website is doing in its ranking.
Here is Google’s John Mueller (the lead of the search relations team at Google) on Core Web Vitals:
“My understanding is we see if it’s in the green and then that counts as it’s OK or not. So, if it’s in yellow then that wouldn’t be in the green, but I don’t know what the final approach there will be.
There are several factors that come together, and I think the general idea is if we can recognize that a page matches all of these criteria then we would like to use that appropriately in search ranking.
I don’t know what the approach would be where there are some things that are OK and some things that are not perfectly OK, like how that would balance out.” (https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-all-core-web-vitals-must-be-met-for-ranking-boost/394358/#close)
Mueller dances around the subject as he is careful not to reveal anything that hasn’t directly been communicated through Google’s official channels. As the rollout is still a ways away, he is careful with his words.
Continue following this important update as Mueller states there will be more information coming out as we approach May. Of course, to have it explained in plain language and find out where your business stands, please reach out to us.
For more information, please check out the resources below:
https://backlinko.com/hub/seo/core-web-vitals
