In just a moment, as of May 2021, Core Web Vitals metrics will become a Google ranking factor, meaning they will affect your website’s position in the world’s most popular search engine. Learn the most important information about Core Web Vitals and prepare your website for the upcoming changes.

What are Core Web Vitals?

Put simply, Core Web Vitals are key metrics illustrating the comfort of using websites. Google developed them by taking into account the aspects that are crucial to user convenience, namely:

  • LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – website loading time. Google will calculate it by analyzing how much time is needed to load the primary page element (viewport), that is, the first view you see on the screen after the page loads. Optimal LCP should be no more than 2.5 seconds.
  • FID (First Input Delay) – website interactivity. This metric analyzes how much time a page needs to respond to a user action. In other words, how quickly you receive a response after clicking any interactive element on the website. According to Google, the optimal FID value is a maximum of 100 milliseconds.
  • CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – visual stability. Google will measure unexpected changes in the position of the page’s visual elements. The sum of all unexpected shifts should not exceed 0.1.

You can check Web Vitals for your website through Google Search Console and using the PageSpeed Insight tool. More information about the metrics and how to improve their values can be found in an article prepared by the marketing agency adCookie: https://adcookie.pl/core-web-vitals-czyli-ranking-googlea-w-nowym-ujeciu/.

Core Web Vitals and your website’s ranking

As of May 2011, the new metrics will become a ranking factor. If your website achieves poor results for LCP, FID or CLS, Google will lower its position in the search results – this is the most obvious, although not the only, consequence of Core Web Vitals taking effect. In addition to this kind of penalty, the search engine also provides… rewards.

Websites that stand out in terms of user comfort, and therefore achieve the best Core Web Vitals values, may be highlighted by Google. In this way, the search engine will encourage its users to visit specific websites that provide them with the best experiences. This option will probably also appear on Google in May 2021.

Core Web Vitals set a new direction for website ranking, one that Google is adopting. The importance of purely technical aspects is gradually giving way to genuine comfort and what users visiting your website actually feel and see. If your website loads slowly, buttons respond with a delay, and the mobile version falls apart on a smartphone screen – it is high time to make changes!