Are Core Web Vitals a Google Ranking Factor?
Google constantly tweaks ranking factors. Recently, they’ve announced that they’ll be putting more emphasis on one important aspect: user experience.
The more value a user gets from the time spent on your website/web page usually means a positive experience, and so they are bound to come back. Google plans to measure this through what we call core web vitals.
This will truly change SEO practices for the better. Are core web vitals part of what’s considered a Google ranking factor? Let’s discuss.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
A subset of web vitals, core web vitals are applied to all web pages. These are tools that site owners may utilize to measure real-world user experience. The data gathered will then be valuable for them to work on their websites and get more visits and possibly conversions.
There are three core web vital metrics, namely:
- LCP also known as Largest Contentful Paint
- FID also known as First Input Delay
- CLS also known as Cumulative Layout Shift
LCP refers to the time it takes before the largest image or block of text loads on your web page. FID measures the time it takes for the browser to respond to a user engagement, i.e. a button click. And lastly, CLS refers to the stability of your web page’s layout which refers to the layout shift of the content a user is looking at as the page continues to load.
As you can see, these core web vitals are quite user-centric, which is always a good thing. Site owners will be obligated to always develop good quality web pages with content that is meaningful and that will cater to the needs of visitors.
The quality of ranked websites will improve this way. Gone are the days where the user’s time is wasted on aimless browsing and poor-quality content.
How Are They Measured?
All three core web vitals are measured as good, needs improvement, and poor. The goal, of course, is to always be rated good at all three of them so you can rank higher.
LCP
LCP is considered good if your web page scores (or loads at) 2.5 seconds or lower. A score of 2.5 to 4 seconds would be rated needs improvement, and anything higher than that will be rated poor.
FID
FID is considered good if your page has a responsiveness of 100 milliseconds. Your web page has got to hit this target around 75% of the time.
CLS
Google will consider your CLS good if you hit 0.1 or lower, 75% of the time. So, layout shifts on your site should be fast enough to qualify for that score.
Conclusion
Google has said that yes, core web vitals are now considered ranking factors. How important are they? VERY.
Take note that they will be updating the parameters each year so this will evolve, and as a site owner, you should adapt. Luckily, there are a ton of ways to improve upon your metrics. Perhaps it’s time to do so now.
