How Can I See & Improve Rankings of My Core Web Vitals?

What Are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are a set of specific factors that Google considers important in a webpage’s overall user experience. Core Web Vitals are made up of three specific page speed and user interaction measurements: largest contentful paint, first input delay, and cumulative layout shift.

So these are real-world experience metrics that Google is looking at, that answer things like: How fast does the page load? How fast is it interactive? How fast is it stable? So basically, when visitors are using your web page on a mobile or a desktop device, what's that experience like in terms of speed, how fast can they interact with it, things like that.

Now it's joining a group of metrics that Google calls Page Experience signals. It's not really standalone. It's grouped in with these Page Experience metrics that are separate from the text on the page. So these are signals like mobile-friendliness, HTTPS, intrusive interstitials, which are those pop-ups that come on and appear.

It's not so much about the text of the page, which are traditional ranking signals, but more about the user experience and what it's like, how pleasant it is to use the page, how useful it is. These are especially important on mobile when sometimes the speed isn't as high. So that's what Google is measuring here. So that's what it is.

Which are the 3 Core Web Vitals Metrics?

The performance of these 3 factors will entirely affect how someone engages with a site and will change their overall experience with it:

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is an element that analyzes how fast the majority of content on a page is loaded.
2. First Input Delay (FID), analyzes how fast people can interact with the loaded content.
3. Cumulative Layout Shifts (CLS) deals with the analysis of the surprise content layout movement.

At the moment, there are only approximately 15% of all websites that actually measure up to the standards of Google’s 2021 Core Web Vitals. It means nearly every website has improvements and enhancements to make in its UX designs to remain competitive.

How to Measure Core Web Vitals?

Google aims to make it easy for all site owners to access and measure Core Web Vitals.

Chrome UX Report

Site owners can utilize the Chrome UX Report to quickly assess the performance of all signals.

Currently, the Big Query dataset surfaces publicly accessible histograms for all Core Web Vitals.

Google is working on a new REST API that will make it easy to access both URL and origin level data.

Core Web Vitals Extension

Google is working on a Core Web Vitals extension for the Chrome browser that’s currently in developer preview.

The Chrome extension surfaces a visual indicator about the state of each vital as a user browses the web.

In future updates, the extensions will also allow users to view aggregated real-user insights (provided by Chrome UX Report) about the state of each core vital for the current URL and origin.

If you’re looking for ways to improve your website’s UX so you can increase search rankings, drive more traffic, and boost conversions (and even sales!), keep reading.

https://www.charterglobal.com/understanding-and-using-core-web-vitals/

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