Core Web Vitals –Basic Web Functionalities
Here’s a short overview of some important ranking factors currently:
- Site speed – on the homepage, as well as on main pages (categories) or end-level pages, meaning products or final destinations of the user depending on the type of web property (e-commerce or lead generation).
- Usability or UX – represents how easy your site is to use, the placement of content, proper display of it (text, images, buttons, etc.).
- Performance – platform stability, as well as server stability, uptime status, server response time, and other technical elements.
- Code – functionalities and visual elements created in programming code (JavaScript, JS, PHP, CSS, iframes, etc.).
Essentially, these are defined as technical SEO elements and represent a considerable part of a site’s SEO optimization strategy.
Unfortunately, most websites in Romania operate on outdated platforms or do not work with a professional IT team that considers all these aspects.
If you fall into this segment, then read this article to the end to know what to ask for next time you think about renewing your website.
SEO for web platform owners
For those unfamiliar with SEO, it is structured into 3 types of optimization:
a). On-Page – changes to text, images, meta properties, and other page access elements.
b). Off-Page – often called outbound organic marketing or link building, is often confused with buying links, a black hat practice that can cause irreparable damage. Link building is, in fact, a strategy for gaining authority and visibility through online press, forums, blogs.
c). Technical SEO – the unseen part of a site, but permanently „felt” by users. Although often passed off as the least important category, technical SEO is actually the backbone of a site. Everything related to errors, redirects, functionality auditing, UX, and various performance elements is related to Technical SEO.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals represent a new metric introduced by Google based on a simple mathematical calculation extracted from real-time data.
Core Web Vitals consist of 4 elements:
- FCP – First Contentful Paint measures the performance of loading the first images or texts of a site from its initialization to the display of the first visible elements on the page.
- LCP – Largest Contentful Paint measures the performance of loading the web page. Specifically, LCP measures how quickly the largest image or block of text on the web page is rendered.
- CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift is an algorithm that measures formatting changes to a web page after initial rendering in a browser, usually through dynamic content insertion above what is already displayed.
- FID – First Input Delay measures responsiveness, i.e., how quickly a web page loads and executes so that the user can interact with the page.
As a result of an algorithm update, in May 2020, Google introduced a new functionality to quantify and measure real-time data to test user experience on websites.
Did you know…
Longer page load times have a severe effect on bounce rates? For example:
- If the page load time increases from 1 second to 3 seconds, the bounce rate increases by 32%.
- If the page load time increases from 1 second to 6 seconds, the bounce rate increases by 106%.
Diagnosing, Reporting, and Resolving Core Web Vitals Elements
If you’ve made it this far, you probably realize that these new metrics will affect your rankings and that there is no doubt about the need to address any technical issues with your site.
Firstly, let me congratulate you for being interested in your site and wanting to provide a better experience for your users, and secondly, I’ll show you how to check your site for these issues and how to fix them.
For the following recommendations, I suggest validating your IT team and ensuring they have advanced-level skills because multiple elements and functionalities will need modification.
Diagnosis:
To measure your site’s performance, I recommend starting with an analysis in Page Speed Insights, a Google tool that uses Lighthouse, part of Google’s algorithm for measuring a site’s performance.
In this test, you’ll find all the elements mentioned above along with recommendations for addressing these issues, as well as a number of tests performed.
You need to get a PASS result for your web property to be compliant with Google’s performance and UX standards.
A score above 89 is recommended, but a score in the yellow zone (average score) is acceptable with some conditions. It’s difficult to optimize 100% on a platform older than 6 months to 1 year, so don’t create nightmares if you only have 70% for the homepage. The important thing is that over 90% of the total pages of the site receive a Good rating.
Reporting:
If you already have a validated property in Google Search Console, it will be even easier to discover pages affected by low performance and negative metrics in CWV.
If you don’t have a Google Search Console account, it’s essential to create one now. You’ll get very important information such as performance in Google Search, coverage in Google (Coverage Report), but also useful tools for adding the sitemap or checking structured data. Another very useful report is Mobile Usability, which can indicate where text or images appear off-screen.
To see the Core Web Vitals report, navigate to it using the left sidebar menu and access Core Web Vitals (English) or Basic Web Performance Details (Romanian), and you’ll see 2 reports, one for desktop and the other for mobile.
At Gun Media, we believe in the power of example, so we’ve chosen to show you this table from the Gun.ro console so that you understand that these metrics are vital for your future in the online environment.
Resolution:
Here is the fun part – to address technical issues, you usually need to make changes across the entire platform, from page size to the format of images used and the number of scripts running.
There is no one-time solution for this kind of technical difficulties because the Google standard is constantly evolving with new points to meet every 3 months, so the best solution for your property is to collaborate with a team of IT professionals prepared for extensive changes to your platform.
Is your site ready to pass the Core Web Vitals test? If not, you’re not alone. According to research conducted by Screaming Frog, only 12% of mobile results and 13% of desktop results passed the evaluation.
Most likely, this aspect has been realized, and that’s why Google announced that these ranking factors will gradually become more important in evaluating pages to give web platform owners enough time to fix the problem. In early spring 2021, Core Web Vitals elements will become integrated into Google’s ranking algorithm with a negative effect on sites that do not provide a good user experience.
SEO Gun Media’s recommendation for a valid page
- Work with a dedicated IT team for your project, capable of making interventions at the basic level of your platform or even a complete migration (where necessary) to a newer and more performant platform.
- Follow Google’s recommendations, which also help you in navigation, actions on the site, and maintaining traffic on the site. A fast and user-friendly site often gets „return visitors,” i.e., users who return to the site due to the positive experience they had.
- Use modern CMS or go for the custom version. The problem with CMS in 2020 is their number. The more choices we have, the harder it is to choose. To choose the right option for you, three basic elements of the site must be identified: platform type – e-comm or lead gen;