Recently, Search Engine Journal posted an article detailing some changes to Google’s Core Web Vitals that can affect a website’s page rank in search results. These changes are slated to go live in May. Is your business ready for them? Here, we spotlight some of the article’s key aspects to help you get optimized for what’s ahead.
The following excerpt is from:
“Google Search Console Changes Core Web Vitals Reporting” by Matt Southern.
Posted in Search Engine Journal. Feb. 18, 2021.
“Google Search Console is changing how Core Web Vitals are measured and reported on, which is likely to be a positive thing for site owners.
Going forward, the metrics defining the boundaries for largest contentful paint (LCP), first input delay (FID), and cumulative layout shift (CLS) are now defined as <= (less than or equal to).
Previously the boundaries for each of the Core Web Vitals was defined as < (less than).
That meant the Google Search Console report would only show a “good” rating if measurements were under the ideal thresholds.
Site owners can now achieve a “good” rating if measurements meet the ideal thresholds…
To refresh everyone’s understanding of what it takes to meet Google’s Core Web Vitals thresholds, refer to the updated verbiage below:
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- Largest Contentful Paint: The time it takes for a page’s main content to load. An ideal LCP measurement is less than or equal to 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay: The time it takes for a page to become interactive. An ideal measurement is less than or equal to 100 ms.
- Cumulative Layout Shift: The amount of unexpected layout shift of visual page content. An ideal measurement is less than or equal to 0.1.
Now would be a good time to review the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console to see where your site stands.”
Here’s our perspective about the article about Google changing Core Web Vitals Reporting:
What it takes to achieve and maintain a great page rank (page one) changes, and keeping up with those changes can be both challenging and frustrating. But, if you want Google to feature your business early in its search results, you’ve got to do what Google says — or suffer the consequences (drop in rank). What Google says now is outlined in its Google Search Console Core Web Vitals. These are those factors that the search engine giant thinks are important and uses in its metric to determine what websites provide potential users with a good, well optimized experience.
Above, the excerpts lists the factors that your business should have optimized. If they meet Google’s threshold, you could be looking at a nice boost in your page rank. To put them more simply, you’ll want to make sure that your website:
- Loads fast. If you go past the 2.5-second marker, your loading time is too slow and you won’t meet Google’s Core Web Vitals.
- Is interactive from the get go. As stated, if your website isn’t interactive by 100ms, it isn’t optimized.
- Is visually delightful. Sounds subjective but Google has a measurement for that: 0.1. When your page loads, visuals unexpectedly shift. Be sure you’re meeting Google’s threshold for this.
Now that these changes are upon us, it’s crucial to make sure that each page of your website is in keeping with Google’s Core Web Vitals so that you can maintain or improve your page rank. If you don’t, you’re going to miss out on organic web traffic, and that means, your competitors will likely be getting YOUR traffic boost!
Discuss your optimization challenges with Blue Interactive Agency. We work with businesses of all sizes, helping them to improve their page ranking with our SEO and digital marketing solutions. We customize our services to suit each client’s needs. Contact us for more information.
