Introduction.
User experience has always been an important target of a website.
In addition to the factors which already affect user experience. Google rolled out its new algorithm update to rank a page i.e. Google’s Core Web Vital Updates.
It is time that user experience will play an important role in the ranking of pages.
The new algorithm named “Core web vital updates” is going to launch in 2021.
The 3 important factors include:
- Loading time.
- Interactivity, and
- Visual stability.
Currently, Google has announced only 3 core web vitals features. We can expect improvements in the future.
The 2021 update will only use the above-mentioned metrics. It can decide the future of a webpage.
What is Core Web Vitals?
It is a set of signals that can use to deliver greater user experience on the website.
Google tells that Core Web Vitals are the subset of Web Vitals that apply to all web pages. It is measure by all site owners and can surface across all Google tools.
Let’s understand the 3 metrics.
- Largest Contentful Paint (Loading)– It will measure the loading performance of the page. To provide the user with a better experience, normally the page should load in 2.5-5 seconds.
- First Input Delay (Interactivity)– It will measure responsiveness. It also quantifies the experience when users first try to interact with the page. Usually, pages should have an Input delay of fewer than 100 milliseconds.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (Stability)– It will measure visual stability. It also quantifies the number of unexpected layout shifts of visible page content. For better user experience, it should be less than 0.1.
Why Core Web Vitals?
It is important to know why Google rolled out this unique update.
Google wants to see when a user visits a website, it provides a better user experience or not?
The current page signals which we already know are:
- Mobile-friendly.
- Safe browsing.
- HTTPs.
- No intrusive interstitial.
Most of the websites which are already ranking on Google use these 4 methods for user experience.
Where Can Google Core Vitals Be Updated?
According to Google, these Core Web Vital Updates are important for each web experience.
So, Google is adding these vitals to their existing tools such as:
- Search Console.
- Web vitals extension.
- Chrome Devtools.
- Chrome User Experience report.
- Lighthouse.
- Page Speed Insights.
Search Console.
This tool helps in measuring website traffic and performance. It helps you monitor and fix issues so that your website can rank in search engines.
The latest update can help you monitor performances and let you know the areas that need improvement.
Web Vitals Extension.
This tool measures the metrics for a healthy website. The extension launched by Google is available to download.
This extension provides 3 main features.
- Ambient Badge.
- Detailed drill down in the popup.
- HUD Overlay.
It will provide instant results on loading, interactivity, and layout shift metrics.
Chrome Devtools.
This tool is built directly into your Google chrome browser. It helps you diagnose problems quickly. This leads to building your website faster.
At first, it looks overwhelming but later you can become familiar with it.
This tool is very important for getting ready for your website for core vital updates.
Chrome User Experience Report.
The CrUX tool provides user experience metrics for how real-world Chrome users experience popular websites on the web.
The report is available through two methods:
- Page speed Insights.
- Public Google Bigquery project.
This tool provides primary data, so it is essential for a real understanding of how each user interacts with a website.
Lighthouse.
It is an automated open-source tool. This tool helps in improving performances, correctness, and quality of your website.
It runs tests while auditing and generates reports on how well the website performs.
Page load performance can be improved by
- Avoiding Costly Multiple Round-Trips to Any Origin.
- Preload key requests.
- Unused Javascript, etc.
The latest update of Lighthouse is equipped with TBT(Total Blocking Time). It quantifies load time.
It also measures the time duration between First Contentful Paint and Time to Interactive.
Page Speed Insights.
This tool analyzes the whole content of a web page because it provides suggestions to improve the speed of the page.
Just by entering the URL, it will show what is slowing your webpage. It also provides recommendations and ways to fix the issues with the website.
Look Ahead.
Google has announced that it will notify 6 months in advance before making these changes.
So, it is time to assess yourself. Plan for the future. Look where you are standing and where you want to go.
It is true that it is not easy to deal instantly with these changes because there is already huge pressure on marketers with new changes.
Final words.
Goggle is focusing more on user experience because in the long term these can get more important in SEO.
Page speed alone is not enough because Google is trying to keep users happy.
Hence, it is essential to optimize a site that loads fast.
As a result, the site with great user experience will rank higher as well as be rewarded.
On the other hand, bad experiences sites have to lose their ranking.
Consequently, marketers have enough time to work on user experiences.
Moreover, we can have more improvements in the future.
In addition, focus on increasing visibility a well.
Also, track your goals. Consequently, the latest update will help in improving user experience and also the ranking of a website.
