Impact of Core Web Vitals and Page Experience on Ranking and User Behavior

How Core Web Vitals and Page Experience Affect Ranking and User Behavior

Google is constantly updating its search algorithm to provide the best possible user experience. One of the recent changes that Google announced is the introduction of Core Web Vitals and Page Experience as ranking signals. These are metrics that measure how fast, responsive, and stable a web page is for users.

In this blog post, we will explore what Core Web Vitals and Page Experience are, how they impact ranking and user behavior, and how to optimize your website for them.

What are Core Web Vitals and Page Experience?

Core Web Vitals are a subset of factors that Google considers important for a web page’s overall user experience. They consist of three elements:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

• This measures how long it takes for the largest or main element of your page to load for users. It could be a hero image, a large heading, or a block of text. A good LCP score is 2.5 seconds or less.

First Input Delay (FID):

• This measures how long it takes for your page to respond to a user’s first interaction, such as clicking a button, scrolling, or typing. A good FID score is 100 milliseconds or less.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

• This measures how much your page content shifts or moves around while it’s loading. These unexpected changes can disrupt the user’s experience and cause frustration. A good CLS score is 0.1 or less.

Page Experience is a broader term that encompasses Core Web Vitals and other factors that Google uses to evaluate the quality of a web page’s user experience, such as:

Mobile-friendliness

• This means that your website is easy to use and navigate on mobile devices, with responsive design, readable text, and touch-friendly elements.

HTTPS

• This means that your website uses a secure connection that protects the privacy and security of your users and their data.

Safe-browsing

• This means that your website does not contain any malicious or deceptive content, such as malware, phishing, or unwanted software.

No intrusive interstitials

• This means that your website does not use any pop-ups, banners, or overlays that block the main content or interfere with the user’s access to it.

Google plans to make Page Experience an official ranking factor in 2021, which means that it will affect how your website ranks in search results. Page Experience will be one of the many factors that Google considers when ranking websites, along with relevance, quality, authority, and others.

How do Core Web Vitals and Page Experience impact ranking and user behavior?

Core Web Vitals and Page Experience impact ranking and user behavior in two main ways:

They influence how Google ranks your website in search results

• Google wants to provide the best possible user experience for its users, so it rewards websites that offer fast, responsive, and stable web pages with higher rankings. Conversely, it penalizes websites that offer slow, unresponsive, and unstable web pages with lower rankings. This means that improving your Core Web Vitals and Page Experience scores can help you boost your visibility and traffic from organic search.

They influence how users interact with your website

• Users also want to have a positive and smooth user experience when they visit your website, so they are more likely to click on, stay on, and return to websites that offer fast, responsive, and stable web pages. Conversely, they are more likely to bounce off, abandon, and avoid websites that offer slow, unresponsive, and unstable web pages. This means that improving your Core Web Vitals and Page Experience scores can help you increase your engagement, retention, and conversion rates from your website visitors.

How to optimize your website for Core Web Vitals and Page Experience?

Optimizing your website for Core Web Vitals and Page Experience requires a holistic approach that involves both technical and content aspects. Here are some general tips to help you improve your scores:

• Use Google tools to measure your current performance: Google provides several tools that can help you measure your Core Web Vitals and Page Experience scores for your website, such as

1. Google Search Console,
2. Google PageSpeed Insights,
3. Website Checker,
4. Lighthouse
5. Chrome DevTools
6. Chrome User Experience Report
7. Web Vitals Extension

• . These tools can help you identify areas of improvement and provide suggestions on how to fix them.

Optimize your images

• Images are often the largest element on a web page, so they can have a significant impact on your LCP score. To optimize your images, you should use the appropriate format (e.g., JPEG for photos, PNG for graphics), compress them to reduce their file size
• (using tools like TinyPNG or Squoosh), resize them to fit their display dimensions ( using tools like Responsive Breakpoints ) and lazy-load them to defer their loading until they are needed (using tools like lazy sizes or Lozad).

Optimize your code

• Code is another factor that can affect your LCP and FID scores, as well as your CLS score. To optimize your code, you should minify it to remove any unnecessary characters
• (using tools like HTMLMinifier, CSSNano, or UglifyJS), remove any unused code (using tools like PurgeCSS or UnCSS), inline your critical CSS and defer your non-critical CSS (using tools like Critical or LoadCSS), and defer or async your non-critical JavaScript (using the defer or async attributes).

Optimize your layout

• Layout is the main factor that affects your CLS score, as it determines how your page content shifts or moves around while it’s loading. To optimize your layout, you should avoid inserting content above existing content (e.g., using banners, pop-ups, or overlays), reserve space for dynamic content (e.g., using width and height attributes for images and videos, or using aspect ratio boxes for responsive elements), and use stable elements for user interaction (e.g., using buttons, links, or forms that do not change their position or size).

These are some of the best practices that can help you optimize your website for Core Web Vitals and Page Experience. However, you should always test and monitor your performance and user behavior data to see what works best for your website and audience. By doing so, you can not only improve your ranking and user behavior but also provide a better user experience for your visitors.