Google Web Core Vitals Update - The Requirements!

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Hopefully by now you have heard about the Web Core Vitals Update Google is releasing in May, 2021. This supposedly was going to be released in 2020, but due to the pandemic, Google decided to launch this update in May of 2021, which is only a few months away from the time of this write up.

The Google Web Core Vitals Update is all about improving the visitor’s experience on your website. Google wants to reward businesses/websites that work to give the visitor the best experience. And this mostly has to do with speed. With more and more Google users searching on their phone, websites need to load faster and faster to keep up. I even have some clients with mobile usage pushing 90% of their traffic! That is how important it is.

Now months ago when this was being talked about, little was known about the scores and where you needed to be in order to get a ranking boost from this update. But just this past week, those requirements were released.

THE REQUIREMENTS

"Google says the minimum threshold for all Core Web Vitals must be met in order to benefit from the associated ranking signal."

Here is what you need in order to get a ranking boost from this update in May.

  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the speed at which a page’s main content is loaded. This should occur within 2.5 seconds of landing on a page.

  • First Input Delay (FID): Measures the speed at which users are able to interact with a page after landing on it. This should occur within 100 milliseconds.

  • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures how often users experience unexpected layout shifts. Pages should maintain a CLS of less than 0.1.

How Do You Properly Measure These Stats?

Google has included them in four different tools and this is what we should use to gauge our progress.

I found the Web Vitals Extension to be quite easy to use and install when looking at single pages. But Google Search Console, which most people have installed on their websites will give you a better idea of how your entire website compares to the requirements above.

Not Meeting These Requirements?

I personally am seeing most of my clients not meeting these requirements. Many platforms, like Shopify, are not the best when it comes to speed out of the box, so you will more than likely need to hire and expert to help you with this. I am currently working with two development teams on client’s sites to hit these thresholds.

Case Study #1

Web Vitals Extension (Homepage)

  • Largest Contentful Paint: 1.59 Seconds

  • Cumulative Layout Shift 0.697 - 1.050 Seconds

  • First Input Delay (couldn't seem to get this to show)

Google Search Console

  • 4,335 poor URLs

  • 240 URLs need improvement

  • 8 good URLs

  • CLS issue: more than 0.25 (desktop/mobile)

  • LCP issue: longer than 4s (desktop/mobile)

I will be updating this blog post with the results we see and the changes we made to this client’s website in order to improve their Web Core Vitals score, so make sure to check back often.

Need Help?

Are you having issues with your Web Core Vitals Score? Contact us and let us see what we can do to help you improve this score so you can get a rankings boost in May, 2021!

Jeff Moriarty