In a recent update, Search Engine Journal addressed Google’s minimum Core Web Vitals. According to Google spokesperson John Mueller, all three Core Web Vitals will need to be met in order to achieve a page ranking boost. Here, we’ll discuss this update, what it means for businesses, and how you can use Core Web Vitals to improve Google ranking.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Google: All Core Vitals May Need to be Made Before Ranking Boost
(Aricle by Matt Southern, Published in Search Engine Journal, January 31, 2021)
“Google says the minimum threshold for all Core Web Vitals must be met in order to benefit from the associated ranking signal.
All three Core Web Vitals benchmarks must be met in order to qualify for the ranking signal boost rolling out this May, says Google’s John Mueller.
This topic came up right at the start of the latest Google Search Central SEO office-hours on January 29.
A question is asked regarding how much it matters if one of the Core Web Vitals is below Google’s requirements when the other two are met.
And does it matter if Google’s testing tools show one of the Web Vitals in the yellow rather than in the green?
We come to learn through Mueller’s response that these things will be of significant importance when the Core Web Vitals update launches this May.
Core Web Vitals are Google’s new standards for evaluating whether a page provides a good user experience.
The metrics consist of:
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- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the speed at which a page’s main content is loaded. This should occur within 2.5 seconds of landing on a page.
- First Input Delay (FID): Measures the speed at which users are able to interact with a page after landing on it. This should occur within 100 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how often users experience unexpected layout shifts. Pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1.”
What Blue Says about Google’s Updates
Google’s Plan on Improving User Experience
Google is rolling out its plan to improve its users’ experiences. To deliver good experiences to users, Google has outlined a set of metrics with minimum thresholds that websites must meet in order to achieve a boost in page ranking. Initially it was unclear if websites would have to meet the minimum for all three metrics, but according to its spokesperson, it appears that they will. Meeting just one or two isn’t good enough to get a pass from Google.
Unfortunately, these metrics aren’t the ones that many businesses have typically been focusing on. They’ve been investing in keyword research, meta-data, and content–which are still crucial for page ranking–but these new metrics will place added responsibility on businesses to ensure they’ve got all their bases covered to stay in the search engine giant’s good graces and help their user experience.
Importance of Page Speed and Maintaining Layout
Two of Google’s Core Web Vitals deal with speed. Google wants websites to load fast; this is the largest contentful paint (LCP) and it measures loading times. First input delay (FID) measures the speed that users can interact with a web page after landing on it. The other core metric relates to cumulative layout shift (CLS); this metric measures unexpected shifts in layout. Websites will need to maintain a CLS of less than 0.1% to get Google’s green light.
Implement Core Web Vitals on Your Website
With these new metrics rolling out now to improve Google ranking, your company may feel overtaxed with everything it needs to do to achieve a high page ranking. Between local SEO and mobile optimization, page rank tasks are piling up. Blue Interactive Agency can help. We provide a complete lineup of digital marketing solutions, including helping businesses achieve Google’s Core Web Vitals. Contact us to learn more.
