With Google’s focus shifting to user experience and their algorithm updates reflecting just that, Core Web Vitals have become a pivotal role in providing comfort for a user when consuming content. But what are these “vitals” and why do they matter?
What are Core Web Vitals?
In short, Core Web Vitals are a way of measuring a page’s user experience. They are made up of three specific measurements: Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift. Let us look at each in a bit more detail:
1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
This is the time (measured in seconds) from when your page starts to load to when the largest block or image is rendered on the screen. The lower the LCP the better as it reassures the usefulness of a page for a user.
2. First Input Delay (FID)
Are your users able to interact with your page? This is what FID measures – it helps to quantify the aspect of user frustration when a page doesn’t begin to respond to actions. FID is measured in milliseconds and it’s what’s responsible for your user’s first impression of your site’s interactivity and responsiveness which is a key factor in building brand trust.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
This is the measurement of your page’s visual stability. If you’ve ever been on a website and the entirety of content shifts up or down, you know firsthand how a bad CLS can hamper user experience. The lower the CLS, the better.
The importance of Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are soon to become one of Google’s ranking factors. As such, page speed is now more important than ever before. Be sure to incorporate this into your strategy to improve your SEO.
