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Core Web Vitals: The Next Official Google Ranking Factor

Cora Web Vitals is the new ranking factor making waves in town. Google announced this algorithm change that is expected to arrive somewhere in the year 2021.

When Google makes it a point to announce a particular change, then you’re in for a big-time surprise! This is because Google tends to make several changes a year, but they occasionally announce them. Speaking of this, when they announce, it means that they want the webmasters to welcome and adopt the change.

Moving on, the recent announcement about Core Web Vitals brings us to the question that what is it?

What is meant by Core Web Vitals?

To begin with, Core Web Vitals refer to the real-world experiences that Google is trying to capture to answer certain questions. This includes learning how quickly the page loads and how interactive it is.

In other words, this algorithm will give insight into the user experience when users visit a webpage, be it on a mobile or desktop. It will tell about their overall experience with regard to speed and interaction.

In a nutshell, Core Web Vitals can be defined as a subset of specific factors that are important for Google to determine a user’s experience with a webpage. They are an integral part of Google’s “page experience score,” which is its way of sizing up the UX of the page.

The site’s Core Web Vitals data can be found in the Google Search Console account’s enhancement section.

What is Core Web Vitals made of?

It is made of three specific measurements covering page speed and user interaction, namely, cumulative layout shift, first input delay, and the largest contentful paint.

Largest contentful paint (LCP)

This is all about determining the time a page takes to load from an actual user’s point of view.

To put it simply, it is the time between clicking on a link to getting to see most of the content on the screen. LCP score could be checked through Google PageSpeed Insights.

First input delay (FID)

FID is the second Core Web Vital that measures the total time taken by the user to interact with the page.   In other words, how long does it technically take for something to happen on a certain page is what this measures.

The examples related to interaction include selecting an option from a menu or entering your email address in the tab.

Cumulative layout shift (CLS)

This determines the stability of a page as it loads. It is also known as determining visual stability. For instance, if the elements on the page tend to move around while the page loads, then the page has a high CLS score. This is bad and needs to be worked upon!

Why are Core Web Vitals of great importance?

They are important since this development will be affecting regular search results depending upon specific criteria, whether these searches are on a mobile or desktop device.

Moreover, Google aims to make Core Web Vitals judging criteria to see whether a webpage is eligible to appear in Google Top Stories. We are talking about the new results that normally appear at the top of the results when you run a search!

A combination of factors will determine the page experience that Google will consider important to deduce the user experience. This will include HTTPS, mobile-friendliness, in addition to a lack of interstitial pop-ups and safe browsing, which means that the page is free from malware.

And, as the name suggests, Core Web Vitals will probably be the most important part of that score. In fact, it is safe to call it the biggest part of the page experience score.

However, there is absolutely no need to fret as Google has made it clear that they are willing to provide time until 2021 so that everyone can work on their site’s scores for a better user experience.

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