How Google's Core Web Vitals Impact SEO
The landscape of SEO is constantly changing. What worked last year may not work this year, and what works this year may not work next year. So, what can we expect from SEO in 2022? In this blog post, we'll explore some of the latest trends with Google's Core Web Vitals and how it can help improve your website's SEO. This will directly impact whether your online marketing and advertising is effective or not.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) - what is it, how does it benefit your business and how can you get started? In simple terms, SEO can be defined by a set of web practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results.
When done correctly it can boost your business to the front page of today's most-used search engines like Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo. Not only that, but it can also generate far more leads for your business. Through identifying useful keywords and analyzing searcher's intent, you can implement relevant keywords into your ads and web copy, which helps search engine AIs and algorithms to easily target your content and pages when people are looking for something specific on its search engine (you know, like your products or services!) Let's get started with the basics and best practices you can implement for your business.
Start on the Right Foot with Google's Core Web Vitals
I bet you didn't you know that Google controls a huge majority of internet traffic for search engines with a rate of 92%, while Bing ranks second with a mere 3%. What's even wilder is when users search for things on their mobile device, Google hold a 94% of the global user traffic. That being said, it's imperative that your website (layout, functionality, load speeds), web copy, and HTML/CSS/JS are top-tier and good to go. There are several ways to go about it, some more feasible than others, and depending on your budget and capacity to develop websites determines how you should go about it.
Many plug-ins and services through Wordpress, Drupal, Wix, Squarespace and others provide an easy walkthrough and step-by-step process on how to get your website live and running. Since most people don't understand the complex world of coding and the intricacies of scripts, conditionals, style sheets etc., it's best to find a plugin that can help build your website for you. Many companies specialize in this, but one of my favorites has come from Elegant Themes and their Divi Builder. One of the great functions of this plug-in and service is that it allows you to start building your website for mobile and other various devices, which most of your viewers will be using. Google's algorithms love it when you have a mobile-friendly website making this plugin all the more resourceful. I would advise to limit the amount of large photo and video pieces you have as that will limit page load speeds, which is imperative to Google's Web Core Vitals.
Here are the top 3 most important Core Web Vitals for 2022:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) a.k.a. Page Load Speeds
First Input Delay (FID) a.k.a. User Interactivity
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) a.k.a. Visual Stability
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP is a fancy way of labeling page load speeds, but its context is quite spot-on. If you're website takes too long to load, I promise people will become uneasy and move on to the next option or website. In short, if your website takes longer than 2.5-4 seconds to load, you'll need to do some content optimizing. Now if you're completely unaware of how to figure out if your website loads quickly, pop over to Hoth.com to try their FREE Pagespeed Checker. This will give you an analytical view and provide several insights that will show you if your website is as quick as a flash, or as quick as Flash from Zootopia. And it its the latter, trust me nobody has the patience of a sloth, so we'll have to clean things up!
If you're LCP is 2 seconds or less it is relatively good. If it's right around the 4-second cut-off, Google will suggest that your URL needs refinement. If the LCP exceeds 4 seconds, it’s considered subpar, and you should consider redeveloping your page experience. For Google to be satisfied, you'll want every web page on your site to hit a 2.5-second LCP or less. That can become quite challenging for comprehensive pages that have tons of high-resolution images and videos. So, be sure to keep this in mind when developing your web design and mobile version.
First Input Delay (FID)
FID pertains to how long it takes for a viewer of your website to start interacting with it. Meaning, the time it takes for them to interact with say a button to your blog, or a hyperlink that sends them to a specific landing page. Be sure to double check that all your links, buttons, photos with embeds, menus and forms to ensure everything is set up properly because you'll get dinged if it takes too long for users to interact or if something isn't set up right that forwards users to a specific place. Not only that, but your bounce rates will start rising if you do not correct them quickly.
An FID of 100 milliseconds or less is great.
An FID of 300 milliseconds needs attention.
An FID of 500 milliseconds is poor and should be analyzed.
The best way to minimize your FID time is to limit third party plugins that incorporate tons of javascript code, which may increase the interactivity of your website, but too much will also negatively impact it. Another great tip is to use browser caching, which will improve load speeds by remembering certain aspects of code when users return to your website.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Last but certainly not least is CLS. CLS refers to the stability of your website after it loads and if everything is in tight order no matter what device you're viewing it from. If you find elements overlapping onto others, or misalignments with the web design then you're CLS will take a hit. The simple answer to keep your CLS low, is to take Google's advice and build your mobile-friendly website first, then expound it to the larger dimensions for responsive design on tablet and desktop versions. Be sure to keep a similar design from mobile to desktop as most users don't like relearning how to interact with a website if it differs from device to device.
Google's standards for a solid CLS are:
A CLS of 0.1 or less is good.
A CLS of 0.2 needs maintenance.
A CLS of 0.3 or higher is need immediate attention.
To ensure the most stable website for your users, it's best to dedicate certain spaces for ad elements for consistency. Another way to improve your CLS is to add new elements below the main landing page of your site. This will ensure historic content that's already been established on your site isn't juggled around when new elements are added down the line. Finally, setting specific dimensions and attributes to ALL web content like photos and videos to properly scale for mobile, tablet and desktop versions will help improve your CLS and load speeds. Making sure content isn't overlapping, responsive and properly added are the best ways to ensure your CLS is in good standing.
Don't Ignore Google's Web Core Vitals
In conclusion, Google's Core Web Vitals are a set of important metrics that website owners and publishers should be aware of. The Google Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure the performance of a website. They are important because they help Google assess the quality of a website and determine whether it is worthy of being ranked highly in search results. The Core Web Vitals are important for all website owners and should be monitored on an ongoing basis. Now that you've got the knowledge of how Google's Core Web Vitals affect your website, let's dive into how you should be marketing and advertising your brand or business in 2022!
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