WHAT ARE CORE WEB VITALS?

Core Web Vitals are new metrics from Google that are used to evaluate the performance of a web page. There are three Core Web Vitals that measure page load speed, page responsiveness, and visual stability. On live websites, Core Web Vitals are measured over a 28-day period, based on actual site visits. Google Lighthouse lab data and other tools can be used to estimate Core Web Vitals performance, but the release of Core Web Vitals marks the first time Google will use real-world data to evaluate page experience in this way.

Building a strong core

Google will officially add Core Web Vitals as a search engine ranking factor in mid-June 2021. The three metrics that currently comprise Core Web Vitals are:

• LCP: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a metric that measures how long it takes for the largest image or text block visible within the viewport to display, relative to when the page first started loading.

• FID: First Input Delay (FID) is a metric that helps measure a visitor’s first impression of a site's interactivity and responsiveness. For example, it measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page (i.e., clicks on a link or taps on a button) to the time when the browser begins responding to that interaction.

• CLS: Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a metric that quantifies how often users experience unexpected shifts in site layout. These shifts are annoying and can harm the user experience. For example, if a user goes to click on a button and the position of that button moves because the layout moves, visitors will end up clicking on nothing.

WHY DO CORE WEB VITALS MATTER?

Core Web Vitals will be added as a ranking factor in Google’s search algorithm in June 2021. It is expected that these scores will have a noticeable impact on the search rankings of websites around the world as the algorithm update is rolled out.

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