Understanding Google’s Core Web Vitals and SEO Impacts

Have you ever opened a website only to be met with slow loading times, jumpy screens, and non-responsive website elements? That’s what we call terrible Core Web Vitals. And it’s not just another fancy SEO term to confuse small businesses, it’s a set of metrics Google uses to asses your website’s user-friendliness.

In short, it is your website’s Core Web Vitals that determine how happy a visitor leaves your pages and how long they spend on your website. Naturally, keeping visitors happy translates to keeping Google and other search engines happy, so you’d better take these metrics seriously. 

Understanding these core vitals is even more essential for small businesses and startups, meaning you’re in the right place. Here’s a review of what Google Core Web Vitals are and how they affect your small business SEO.

Google’s Core Web Vitals are metrics that Google uses to measure how fast and user-friendly your website is to (you guessed it) rank your pages. Here are three Core Web Vitals you need to focus on:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Essentially, LCP is how long it takes for the main content on your page to load. This is the time it takes for your visitor to see something besides a blank page. For optimal SEO results, aim for an LCP of under 2.5 seconds – anything longer and visitors bounce faster than a rubber ball.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP): INP measures how responsive your website is. Imagine clicking a button and having to stare at a frozen screen. That’s bad, INP. Ideally, your INP should be under 200 milliseconds, which means your site should react to clicks and taps almost instantly.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS is all about visual stability. Has it ever happened to you that clicking on a link ended up opening something else because the page suddenly jumped around? That’s CLS. You want a CLS close to zero – a stable, frustration-free experience for your visitors.

Google uses Core Web Vitals as part of its page experience ranking system. This system considers every little thing that can affect user experience, including mobile-friendliness, website navigation, security, and of course, Core Web Vitals.

While relevancy to the search query and quality of content are still the most important factors in Google’s ranking algorithm, Core Web Vitals can come to the rescue in situations where multiple websites have similar content and relevance.  

Here’s how it works: 

First, Google collects Core Web Vitals data by observing how real users interact with your website. This is called field data, and it’s different from lab data which is collected through simulated tests.  

This real-world data gives Google a more accurate picture of your website’s experience for users. And if it likes what it sees, you’ll be rewarded with higher search rankings.

The best part about these metrics is that (unlike some other ranking factors), you have great control over Core Web Vitals. Optimize your website for these metrics, and you will directly improve your chances of ranking higher in search results!

Here are three famous and helpful tools to measure your Core Web Vitals.

Google Search Console: Google Search Console is a free tool you can use to export a useful report about your Core Web Vitals. This report helps you learn how your website is performing and where you need to improve.

PageSpeed Insights: PageSpeed Insights is another free Google tool that helps you find issues you’re specifically looking for, usually those affecting your website’s speed and performance.

Lighthouse: Lighthouse is a built-in tool for developers you can find on Chrome. Use it to audit your website and find whatever you need to know about your performance metrics, including your Core Web Vitals.

Now that it’s become clear how deciding Core Web Vitals are when it comes to your website’s user experience and, in turn, its ranking, it’s time to take action. Use any of the tools above or Momentum’s Free Website SEO Audit to assess your web pages and find areas for improvement. Here are some tips to help you along this journey:

Reduce Third-Party Scripts: A study by Backlinko has revealed that third-party scripts can seriously slow your web pages down. This study shows that each third-party script can slow down a page by 34 milliseconds (ms)! Reduce them and you’ll be directly improving your LCP and INP.

Upgrade Your Web Hosting: A better web hosting plan can significantly improve overall load times, including LCP.

Defer JavaScript: While JavaScript is essential for many website features, it can also slow down INP. Minimize JavaScript files and delete non-critical files altogether to improve your small business SEO!

Minimize HTTP requests: The more elements your website has to load (like images, scripts, etc.), the slower it will be. 

Prioritize Content Above the Fold: Don’t use just any image and feature “above the fold” (the part of the page visible without scrolling). This is the first thing anyone sees when opening your website, so be careful about what you put in it. We don’t recommend using interactive elements, big images, or pop-ups above the fold. 

Enable browser caching: This allows visitors’ browsers to store certain elements of your website so they don’t have to reload them on every visit.

Reserve Space for Ad Elements: Running ads on your website is all good and well until one suddenly appears where it shouldn’t be and pushes other content around. Make sure to have a designated space for ads on your website layout to prevent them from ruining your CLS metrics.

Minimize Your CSS: Bulky CSS files can seriously bring your page speed down and delay LCP times. So give your CSS a good housecleaning if you haven’t already and trim down unnecessary characters and formatting. Naturally, this will improve your LCP too.

Set Size Attribute Dimensions: For media like videos and images, use the “width” and “height” attributes in your HTML code to specify their exact dimensions. There are extensions that help you do this, too. Setting dimensions is like telling browsers exactly what to show in how much space. Naturally, this helps CLS by avoiding layout shifts as the page loads.

By optimizing your website’s Core Web Vitals, you’ll create a faster, more user-friendly experience that’ll keep visitors happy and give your rankings a boost. So if you have been slacking off with your page experience, it’s now time to take action and signal Google that you’re doing your best to optimize these metrics.

Momentum can help you identify areas for improvement and create a customized strategy to optimize your Core Web Vitals. Book a free quote today, and together, we will find ways to give your website the care it needs.