What are Core Web Vitals?

The Core Web Vitals are three key metrics that Google has defined since May 2021.

The three Core Web Vitals categorize the usability of a website based on measurable values.

Based on the result, Google evaluates the website.

What are the three Core Web Vitals?

The Core Web Vitals consist of three individual metrics.

Each point is measured and individually evaluated.

These three factors together form the Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
• First Input Delay (FID)
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

With LCP, Google measures the time it takes to load a website.

The decisive moment is when the main content of the page is available.

FID refers to the time interval between an interaction with the website and the response.

Google measures the delay between clicking on a link or image and its availability.

Google uses CLS to describe the stability of a website's layout. This involves measuring whether elements of the website shift or move around.

Such shifts occur when the website reloads images or other elements.

Source: web.dev

How does Google rank the results?

Google categorizes all three metrics into three categories. These three categories are:

• Good
• Needs Improvement
• Poor

Google considers a loading time of no more than 2,5 seconds to be good for LCP.

Between 2,6 and 4,0 seconds, the website receives a rating indicating it needs optimization.

Performance is poor if it takes more than 4,1 seconds.

For the FID response time, Google expects a delay of less than 100 milliseconds to be rated as good.

The website is considered to need improvement in the range of 101 to 300 milliseconds.

If the page takes more than 300 milliseconds to respond to input, the performance is considered poor.

The CLS follows a calculation scheme.

This is: Layout Shift Score = Impact Fraction * Distance Fraction.

The Impact Fraction measures whether an element shifts.

The Distance Fraction then measures how far this element has moved.

Google rates websites with a Cumulative Layout Shift of 0,1 or less as good.

If the CLS is between 0,1 and 0,25, the website needs improvement.

A value above 0,25 indicates that the page is considered bad.

Why are the Core Web Vitals so important?

For you as a website operator, the Core Web Vitals are important because Google uses the results to rank the page.

Core Web Vitals are part of the Google algorithm.

This determines the PageRank, which influences the position of your website in the search results.

A good score therefore has the potential to place your own website in a better position among the search results.

This goal is desirable because it guarantees traffic and clicks.

Google now places greater emphasis on these more technical factors of a website, as poor performance drastically increases the bounce rate.

This is shown by analyses of websites with long loading times. According to Google, 32 percent of users already abandon a page if it takes three seconds to load.

Accordingly, Google only awards a good rating if the loading time is less than 2,5 seconds.

What methods can be used to read the values ​​of one's own website?

In order to improve the performance of your website, an analysis is necessary first.

There are different Tools, which allow for the control of the Core Web Vitals.

It is also important to understand that the Core Web Vitals are not an absolute value.

The performance of a website fluctuates.

This depends primarily on the server's workload.

Therefore, a long-term view and analysis of the data is advisable.

Google Search Console The internet giant itself offers a tool for this analysis.

The Search Console stores the historical values ​​of your website.

It is also possible to analyze individual pages here.

Another useful tool is PageSpeed ​​Insights.

This tool provides pure live data about the website's performance.

This allows the success of current change measures to be monitored.

Also with LighthouseThe Core Web Vitals can be read using Chrome DevTools or the Web Vitals Extension.

The automated analyses already provide you with many clear indications of problems.

Pagespeed Insights, for example, provides clear information about the factors that lead to a poor rating.

The analysis lists exactly the time spent loading specific components.

What measures can be taken to improve the Core Web Vitals?

Problems with the Core Web Vitals are primarily due to two points.

These are, on the one hand, technical weaknesses of the server.

On the other hand, unprofessional or incorrectly configured websites also cause slow response times.

One measure to increase Core Web Vitals is therefore to switch to a more powerful server.

There are several options here.

If you operate your website on the infrastructure of an external host, many websites are often located on one server.

Performance drops, especially during peak hours, because the server is overloaded.

A better choice is a virtual server or, even better, a dedicated server that you use exclusively.

This way, you have access to the full power of the server.

This ensures consistently low loading times. This is important for a good rating in the LCP category.

The optimization The website content is also a key point.

This often affects all three points of the Core Web Vitals.

What impact does SEO have on the Core Web Vitals?

We from the MIC Group offers you a Search Engine optimization with SEO roadmap.

Part of this service also includes an optimization phase.

In this context, we use the analysis of PageSpeed ​​Insights and other tools to look for problems in the website configuration.

We are correcting the identified weaknesses of the website.

This improves FID and CLS for the Core Web Vitals.

We will also provide recommendations for changing your server infrastructure, if necessary.

This has a direct impact on the loading time and performance of your website.

Here's how you can improve all three Core Web Vitals factors through our SEO measures.

In addition, our SEO services offer further benefits, such as professionally designed content.

These are also designed to comply with current Google guidelines, thus increasing the visibility of your website on the internet.