How will Google focus on Core Web Vitals in 2021 

‘Through both internal studies and industry research, users show they prefer sites with a great page experience. Great page experiences enable people to get more done and engage more deeply; in contrast, a bad page experience could stand in the way of a person being able to find the valuable information on a page.’ That was according to Google Webmasters Blog in May.

Buckle up if you’re a content marketing mastermind or SEO personnel for it’s a shake-up hour! 2020 hasn’t been any different with Google’s ever-changing search algorithms. Like in the past years, Google will soon utilize three search metrics to offer a seamless experience to internet users. The core web vitals were part of the Page Experience update recently. However, how well versed are you with the core web vitals and what’s Google’s take?

The Core Web Vitals 

There are technically three signals that fall under the category of Core Web Vitals. These include; First Input Delay (FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCD), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These are quite technical terms, and in case you aren’t experienced in this area, it might not influence your SEO activities. The metrics are;

1. First Input Delay (FID) 

FID measures the time a page becomes interactive, and this is from the time a user interacts with it. As per Google Webmaster, 100 milliseconds isregarded good, 100 to 300 milliseconds requires improvement, and anything longer than that requires improvement. The measurement is taken from an interactive element that the user first clicks.

2. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) 

LCP refers to the amount of time the largest content element in the viewport becomes visible from when the user requests the URL. The largest content element may be a video, image or a large block-level text element. The LCP is influenced by the server response time, JavaScript, CSS, image size, client-side rendering and Content Distribution Networks (CDN). Ratings are as follows- below 2.5 is considered good, 2.5 to 4 seconds requires improvement, and longer than that is regarded as poor.

3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). 

CLS is considered as the amount of time the page layout shifts in the viewport during the loading phase, and the score ranges from 0 to 1. Anything less than 0.1 is considered good, 0.1 to 0.25 requires improvement, and above 0.25 is regarded poor.

By May 2021, the three metrics will become absolute Google ranking signals and websites in the poor category will be ineligible for the viable carousel. Previously, AMP was a requirement for pages to appear in ‘Top Stories’ and not just that, a website could get a top 1 ranking on the SERP.

Core Web Vitals In Conjunction With SEO 

Google updates come with differing impacts on rankings, and it’s quite true with this one as well. Therefore, it’s quite essential for SEO professionals to take necessary action proactively. Ensure that your website offers an awesome user experience with speed as a vital aspect.

If user experience has always been a top priority for you, the update may have no negative impact on your website. But what we are sure about is that it’s going to affect all regular search results as well as mobiles.

All in all, it is necessary to keep sites optimized with frequent SEO efforts to escape the downsides of the incoming Google update.