30-Second Summary:
There are several key aspects of SEO and Google’s Core Web Vitals, and SEO goes hand in hand. Why? Google’s Core Web Vitals aim to enhance user experience online, focusing on key metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay and Cumulative Layout Shift amongst others. In this blog post, we’ll explain what are Core Web Vitals in SEO and how they impact your site.
According to Google Search Central, “Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that measure real-world user experience for loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability of the page.” Google “highly recommend site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals for success with Search and to ensure a great user experience generally”, explaining that “this, along with other page experience aspects, aligns with what our core ranking systems seek to reward.”
So, Core Web Vitals impact on SEO is bigger than you may think, with its metrics affecting how websites are ranked. But what Core Web Vitals for SEO should you focus on improving? We’ve provided a brief overview below.
Largest Contentful Paint or “LCP” refers to the time taken for the largest section of a web page to load. LCP should occur within 2.5 seconds of when a begins to load. If it takes longer than this, it’s recommended to improve server response times, optimise images and videos and enable compression on your website.
The next step is to improve First Input Delay or “FID”. This refers to the time from when a user initially interacts with your web page to when it responds. As a rule of thumb, FID should be less than 100 milliseconds. If it takes longer than this, consider breaking up long tasks, reducing the impact of third-party code and minimising JavaScript execution.
Cumulative Layout Shift or “CLS” is a Google search metric that tracks websites layout shift as they load. For visual stability, it’s recommend to keep CLS under 0.1. To improve this score, consider including size attributes on your images and videos, reserving space for ads and avoid publishing content above existing content.
Content Delivery Networks or “CDNs” operate by delivering content to users from edge servers that are geographically closer to them. Ultimately, the goal here is to improve loading times for returning visitors. To do so, consider implementing browser caching, reducing load time and using a CDN to distribute content across multiple servers across the globe for faster delivery.
Lastly, prioritise mobile optimisation. Thia involves ensuring your website is mobile-friendly and utilise responsive design techniques to perform optimally on different screen sizes. It’s also improve to reduce any mobile-specific issues on your website to enhance user experience.
Now you understand how to further enhance your site’s performance and user experience, it’s time to put your learning to the test! Watch how Core Web Vitals for SEO positively contributes to your SEO efforts.
For more on our blog read all about 6 things to know about financial services SEO and 5 Google Trends tips every business should know.
