In this article I am collecting the most common and frequently asked questions about the recently-introduced Core Web Vitals metrics and also Page Experience factors.
This article is evolving and I will add new FAQs regularly as they come.
They are a set of key metrics reflecting the experience of the user on a page. They measure metrics such as page load time, interactivity and stability of the content.
Together with Page Experience, Core Web Vitals are going to be a new Google ranking factor. This means you will need to include them as part of your SEO strategy.
Core Web Vitals were mentioned in a post by the Chrome team on May 5th.
There is no confirm date for the roll out of Core Web Vitals as a new ranking factor. In the official post on the Google Webmaster blog, there is a mention of next year for the roll out with a six-month notice for businesses.
Core Web Vitals will be rolled out as a ranking factor in 2021. To receive a boost in the rankings, web pages will have to score well in all three measures: LCP, FID and CLS.
The three main Core Web Vitals are Large Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
These might change over time to reflect the most important aspects of the user experience.
Large Contentful Paint (LCP) measures the time it takes for the largest element on the page to be made visible.
In the past Google looked at First Contentful Paint (FCP). However this metric only captured the very beginning of the page load, while the LCP better reflects the actual experience of the user visualising the content.
The recommended value score for LCP is within 2.5 seconds
First Input Delay (FID) measures the time between the first interaction by the user (for example, the click on a button) and the response by the browser.
The recommended value score for FID is within 100ms.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures the sum of all unexpected layout shifts (for example, when an element on a page unexpectedly moves frame) happening on a given page.
The recommended CLS value score is less than 0.1.
Page Experience is a series of signals that show how the user perceives the experience of visiting a page, beyond the quality of the page content.
There is a number of tools currently available to check whether your website is scoring high on these metrics:
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-all-core-web-vitals-must-be-met-for-ranking-boost/394358/
Pasquale is Founder at Increasily.com, a digital strategy agency based in Dublin, Ireland; and Co-Founder at luxury ecommerce marketplace Thesidebe.com. Pasquale has +15 years of experience in Digital Marketing and Account Management. He currently lives in Dublin with his wife, stepdaughter and cat.
Pasquale Mellone