Google organizes site races. Prizes will be taken by the fastest. On May 5, 2020, the company announced new parameters of the sites that are taken into account during the ranking. Their name is Core Web Vitals. The launch took place in 2021, and since then the fastest have been getting to the top. Of course, the innovations do not cancel the current factors that affect the promotion of the site on the top, there are several hundred in Google. So it is worth understanding them in detail and preparing your web pages for these requirements.
What are Core Web Vitals?
The main goal is to make the online experience comfortable for the user. In addition to the previously known ranking factors that take into account User experience (UX): mobility, secure browsing, HTTPS, and the absence of annoying windows, Google’s algorithm takes into account parameters that measure the speed of websites. But what does that mean? What, where, and how much should be accelerated? Google employees have formulated 3 indicators by which sites are evaluated and combined them under the term Core Web Vitals. At first the three metrics were LCP, FID, and CLS, but in March 2024 FID was replaced by INP:
1. Largest contentful paint (LCP)
Largest contentful paint (LCP) – drawing the largest content. Measures the time it takes for the largest visible page item to load. This is most often a video, a picture, or a large text block.
Why this indicator?
Metrics that existed before LCP do not take into account data that the user sees on the screen (DOMContentLoaded and Load) or are too complex and often erroneous (First Meaningful Paint (FMP), Speed Index (SI)). Therefore, it is not possible to determine whether a site visitor is satisfied with the loading speed. Experts have concluded that the best measure will be the time during which the largest element of the page emerges.
In numbers
For LCP and the following ranking factors, the developers proposed 3 indicators:
- good (green area)
- needs improvement (yellow zone)
- not enough (red zone)
It is good if the largest element of the page is displayed in 2.5 seconds. Sites get into the red zone after 4 seconds.
What to look for if the site is in the red zone?
- large items. If possible, it is better to remove them.
- be careful with scripts. Each third-party script slows down page loading
- upgrade your web hosting
- set up lazy loading. Then the items will be loaded during scrolling.
2. Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) – the delay in responding to interactions. A metric that shows how quickly the page responds to user actions throughout the visit: button clicks, text input, clicks on links, etc. Simply put, it’s how fast the site is ready to work with the user.
Why is this an important ranking factor?
How quickly your site becomes available for interactive interaction will determine the customer’s first impression. Plus, many sites have trouble being willing to interact with the user while loading, which is very annoying to visitors.
Where did FID go?
Until March 2024, this role was played by First input delay (FID), which measured only the delay of the first input. But a page can respond quickly to the first click and slow down on all the following ones. INP takes into account all interactions during the visit, so it reflects the real user experience more accurately.
In numbers
Good time is up to 200 milliseconds, bad – more than 500 milliseconds.
What to pay attention to if the site reacts for a long time?
- Third-party scripts. Buttons on social networks, analytics service – all this slows down the site
- “Heavy” code. While the site analyzes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, it will not be able to respond to client requests.
- Long JavaScript tasks. Break them into smaller ones so that the browser has time to respond to the user.
3. Cumulative layout shift (CLS)
Cumulative layout shift (CLS) – cumulative layout shift. Layout stability indicator. With CLS, you can quantify how often a user encounters unexpected item shifts while loading a web page.
Why is it important?
It will protect against unwanted transitions (accidental clicks on ads, links, etc.) and disorientation on the site. Uncontrolled movement of text, buttons, and links is very annoying to users.
Figures
It is ideal if the CLS does not exceed 0.1. If this figure is greater than 0.25, the site has serious problems.
What to do then?
- Fix the size of images and videos
- Do not paste content on top of other content
- Prefer transform animations over property animations.
Why are Core Web Vitals Google’s official ranking factor?
The sooner the site loads, the more it is ready to interact, the less it irritates the user with unpredictable “actions”, the more pleasant it is to use. This affects search positions and traffic. More traffic – more conversions – more business revenue.
Core Web Vitals are well-defined metrics that help quantify the above indicators. In June 2021, they officially became a ranking factor for mobile search results, and since February 2022 – for desktop as well. However, they influenced site optimization even before official recognition.
Many users leave a “sluggish” web resource, the Google algorithm sees that something is wrong with the resource and offers better, more convenient options. Therefore, speed metrics are very important for User experience (UX) and SEO, which affects the conversion.
For example, Rossignol.com (a French online store of ski equipment and clothing) reduced the loading time by 1.9 seconds and reduced the speed index by 10 times – and its conversion increased by 94%.
How to measure Core Web Vitals?
Methods of metric analysis are divided into field and laboratory.
Field methods – for fast and real monitoring of web experience.
- PageSpeed Insights – shows how the page interacts with the user and offers optimization options.
- Web Vitals browser extension – you can find it in the official Chrome Web Store. Shows the open page report directly in the browser.
- Google Search Console (Core Web Vitals report) – a tool that allows you to measure the metrics in more detail. Shows problem pages, displays the numerical values of the metrics, and gives options for improvement.
Laboratory (for web developers) – allow you to diagnose problems during the development of the site. Speed is easiest to build in at this stage: during WordPress website development it is easier to remove extra scripts right away than to speed up a finished site.
- Chrome DevTools – built-in tools for site developers. Allows you to quickly fix problems
- Lighthouse – a tool that automatically audits the site. Enter the URL and it provides a report on the page. Note: INP is a field metric, so laboratory tools estimate it indirectly.
Conclusion
It is important for search engines that the user comes to the site and solves their problem on it. This is the main task of Google’s algorithms. The online resource must provide a quality user experience. Core Web Vitals are not the only indicators that determine the quality of the sites. But the behavioral factors that directly affect rankings largely depend on the loading speed. The main thing is the customer, so everything is done for their convenience.