Checked by: Justina Tažibajeva
Google has confirmed that Core Web Vitals will become ranking criteria from May 2021.
One of Google's latest announcements indicates that user experience elements (Core Web Vitals) will be added to the list of ranking factors, together with an update focusing on the user experience of browsing a page (page experience signals).
The page experience signals will be combined with the core UX elements/signals in the algorithm update:
- Mobile-friendliness of the website;
- Safe browsing;
- HTTPS security;
- Use of advertising and POP Up windows on the page.
Core Web Vitals have been introduced before and are designed to measure how the user experience changes in terms of page speed, responsiveness and visual stability.
Core Web Vitals are defined as:
- Largest Contentful Paint – loading time; the time it takes to load the main content of a page. The ideal LCP measurement is 2.5 seconds or faster.
- First Input Delay – interaction time; the time it takes for a page to become interactive. The ideal measurement is less than 100 ms.
- Cumulative Layout Shift – a visual stability; the visual shift in the layout of the page content. The ideal measurement is less than 0.1.
"These signals measure the user's experience of interacting with the website: improving the website from the UX side, so that the user gets the best and most useful experience while browsing the website."
The Core Web Vitals can change over time to meet changing user needs.
New labelling of websites in search results
Google promises to add labels to its search results, indicating which search results provide a better user experience.
Google is currently working with visual indicators to identify pages that have met all of the page usability criteria listed in the section above.
We hope that the markup will be made public and a trial version launched soon. If the test is successful, it will be applied in May 2021, together with an update of the page experience.
Currently, many pages are not suitable for this label. A study published in August shows that only less than 15% of websites are optimized well enough to pass the Core Web Vitals rating.
Recently, website owners have been trying to improve their pages according to user experience signals.
Google reports an average 70% increase in the number of users using Lighthouse and Page Speed Insights, applications that evaluate user experience (UX) metrics. Many website owners also use Search Console's Core Web Vitals report to identify opportunities for improvement.
Google has at least 6 ways to measure key web vitals.
Google recommends AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) as an easy and cost-effective way to optimize the user's on-page experience when browsing on mobile devices.
Source: Search Engine Journal
