Google announced its Core Web Vitals update back in November 2020 and as per the stated schedule, it rolled out in May 2021. Since the announcement, the SEO community has been a buzz about the update’s impact on present website rankings and future implications that will define optimisation efforts going forward. One month in, we are yet to see any major impact of the Google Core Web Vitals update on current rankings but given the update’s nature, the long-term impact of the update is bound to be profound.
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What is the Core Web Vitals update anyways?
Speaking simply, the new Google Core Web Vitals update will rank those webpages and websites higher in its SERP that provides an impressive page experience to its users. This recent update is encapsulated in Google’s previous Page Experience update that ranked sites based on page experiences and will apply to both desktop and mobile browsing. So, if your website prioritises user experience by loading fast and keeps away the interstitials, you will score a “good” on the Core Web Vitals parameter and probably rank higher than a competitor.
But didn’t Google already consider user experience as a ranking parameter?
Yes, it certainly did. Before May 2021, Google used to check website vitals like mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, intrusive interstitials or ads, and HTTPS to understand the user-friendliness of your website. Now, the search engine’s bot will check three added parameters – loading, interactivity and visual stability – placed under the title of Core Web Vitals to further determine the experience that users are having on your site. Again, stating things simply:
- if your largest content takes less than 2.5 seconds to load
- if the time taken by your website to become interactive is less than 100 milliseconds
- and, if the content on your page does not shift for more than 0.1 seconds
You get a thumbs up on the Core Web Vitals front. You can always opt for help from any responsive web design company india to manage page loading and page speed optimized
How does this affect my site’s SEO?
Let’s begin by revealing what Google has to say about the update’s impact on SEO. Danny Sullivan cleared the air by explaining that the Core Web Vital update is one of Google’s many efforts to prioritise user experience on a website as a ranking parameter. And it is still just one of the many ranking parameters that Google checks while crafting its SERP for a keyword. In his words – if a page has more relevant content to the searched keyword but does not do great with UX, Google is likely to rank this page higher. But if two websites score equally on content relevancy, the one with better UX will rank higher. You can consult from professional UX designers for suggestion regarding Better UX Ideas!
The SEO community, however, is not convinced that the matter is this simple. We believe that SEO analytics parameters like time spent on site, page load time, user bounce rate and pages visited per session are going to become more important while designing SEO campaigns. Plus, core website design will play a massive role where unnecessary CCS code or large images on landing pages can negatively impact a website’s ranking. Yes, continuous investment in quality content is necessary but website designing, both for desktop and mobile, has now become a vital SEO parameter post the Core Web Vital update. Get a help from reputed web design company to improve your core web vitals quality score
What am I to do to not affect my site’s present ranking?
The first step would be to conduct a thorough website design audit followed by an on-page SEO audit. Figure out what is delaying your page’s load time or affecting the content arrangement and fix them on an immediate basis. If you are, however, launching a new website, you must get in touch with the best SEO company to incorporate the Core Web Vital features right into your website foundation. The update is here to stay. And expect more such UX-based updates from Google. So, why not stay on the “good” side from the word go?
