How Has Google’s Core Web Vitals Impacted SERPS?

by Lance Moore

Google’s Core Web Vitals & SEO

The SEO process for your business can be overwhelming, to say the least, and with Google’s constant algorithm changes, keeping up can be tricky and time consuming. And what about Core Web Vitals? Do you know how to optimize for CWV? No matter where you are on the SEO spectrum, from “Help me!” to “I think I know what I’m doing”, Uptick is here to help you understand Google’s Core Web Vitals and how they impact the SEO process of your business.
With Google announcing the significant changes in the ranking of web pages, these web vitals become a crucial factor affecting the SEO process of your company. First, let’s understand the meaning of Core Web Vitals.

What Are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are metrics that measure the responsiveness, speed, and visual stability of the web pages. These are real-world experience metrics that Google considers imperative for a good user experience. As a search engine, Google regularly updates its experience metrics that impact the web pages ranking on the search results. Google calls this group of metrics -Page Experience Signals which includes the page experience metrics and other signals like HTTPS security, mobile-friendliness, and intrusive interstitial guidelines.
Three components of Core Web Vitals include:
1.      Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): It refers to the average loading time taken by the page’s main content. An LCP of 2.5 seconds or faster is ideal.
2.      First Input Display (FID): It refers to the total time taken for a web page to become interactive. An FDI measurement of fewer than 100ms is ideal.
3.      Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This refers to visual stability of web pages by measuring the amount of unanticipated layout shift of the main content.

Google Core Web Vitals Becoming Ranking Signals in 2021

With Google’s confirmation of Core Web Vitals becoming ranking signals in June 2021, websites need to optimize and update their content and statistics to conform to these new SEO practices. This change combines the Core Web Vitals with existing user experience signals. Google may also add labels indicating which websites offer a good page experience.

What Is the Effect of Core Web Vitals on Your SEO?

The implementation of Core Web Vitals has affected the rankings of all web pages in Google search results across desktop and mobile devices. Earlier, AMP pages were necessary for appearing in top stories in the search result, but it’s no longer required. Your website must score satisfactory in all three components of Google Core Web Vitals to rank better during organic search. Some metrics may be hard to comply with for websites like news web pages, which have numerous ad placements—and, due to that fact, have trouble maintaining a LCP of 2.5 seconds. However, websites with less complex content can maintain higher page speed and score well with experience signals.

Core Web Vitals Report & Tools for Optimizing Your Website

Now, let’s understand how to measure Web Vitals and fix issues you might face while optimizing your website according to these signals. Google has many tools to help you measure and evaluate your experience signals. The new report in the Search Console tells you all URLs present in the core web index, detailing those which are “good” or those that require optimization. If you have poor URLs, you must investigate and search for ways to improve them. Each search console report links to a page speed insights report.
Let’s be honest, some of the experience metrics can get complex, and you may need the assistance of page speed experts or SEO experts like us to get a handle on things. Our numerous resources at Uptick Marketing can help you optimize your website to be in line with the latest SEO practices. There are also free tools and reports you can use provided by Google, including page experience reports, page speed insights, mobile-friendliness test tools, AMP reports, and others. These can help you better govern page experience and evaluate website performance.

The Bottom Line for Your Business

A recent study suggests that less than 15% of websites are optimized enough to qualify for the Core Web Vitals assessment. If you wish to update your web pages to comply with these new (and ever-changing) standards, reach out to us to get things started; our in-house SEO experts are here to assist you at every step.
Reach out today and we’d be happy to provide a free audit of your website!

About Lance

For nearly a decade, Lance has worked with Uptick in search engine optimization in some capacity, initially building our SEO department from the ground up. His expertise in the world of optimization makes him the ideal person to keep Uptick on the cutting edge of the ever-evolving SEO sphere. A graduate of Samford University, Lance is a member of Samford University’s Entrepreneurship, Management, and Marketing Advisory Board, creating the university’s first digital marketing course. He has spoken at the Birmingham chapter of the American Marketing Association, co-hosted ‘Grow With Google’ small business events, and presented to the Birmingham and Huntsville chapters of the Public Relations Council of Alabama. Currently, he spearheads Uptick’s SEO sales, business development, and overall strategies.

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