Google's core web vitals are a set of metrics designed to measure the quality of user experience on a website. These web vitals have become increasingly important for SEO, as they are being used as a ranking factor in Google's search algorithm. This means that if your website is not meeting the standards set by Google, then you risk lower visibility in their search results.
To understand why Google has incorporated these web vitals into its algorithms, it is important to understand what core web vitals are and how they affect a website's performance.
Core web vitals are a set of three metrics used to measure how quickly and smoothly a website loads, how quickly it responds to user input, and how interactive it can be. These web vitals are typically measured using tools like Google Lighthouse and they consider things like page speed, time to first contentful paint, and cumulative layout shift.
Google's algorithms use these metrics to assess how user-friendly a website is and rank it accordingly. For example, a website that takes longer to load may be penalized in the search results while one that loads quickly will be rewarded. Additionally, sites with a higher cumulative layout shift score will be rewarded because they promote better user experience.
As the core web vitals become more important for SEO, webmasters should take the time to ensure their websites are optimized for these metrics. This can be done through optimizing images, minimizing render-blocking JavaScript, and ensuring the same-origin policy is properly enforced. Additionally, webmasters should make sure that their websites are properly configured for server-side rendering so that content is delivered to the user faster.
In addition to optimizing websites for core web vitals, webmasters must also provide quality content that is relevant to the user and is updated frequently. Google's algorithms look for quality content that is regularly updated and relevant to the user, and they will rank websites accordingly in their search results.
Ultimately, it is important to understand that core web vitals are becoming increasingly important for SEO in Google's algorithms. To ensure your website is ranked higher in Google's search results, webmasters must ensure their websites are optimized for these web vitals and also provide quality content that is relevant and frequently updated.