Your B2B customers find your website through many sources, but the most common entry point is Google. Every year, Google rolls out hundreds of updates. Most of these are unnoticeable and ultimately don’t change your day-to-day internet browsing experience. However, sometimes Google introduces a change to its core algorithm. In 2021, one of these updates included Core Web Vitals. Core Web Vitals directly impact the SEO of your site, how many people find your digital presence, and where you rank within Google search results.

To fully understand what Core Web Vitals are, why they matter, and how they affect your business, I sat down with one of Ecreative’s Senior Digital Marketing Specialists, Jenna Sherrick, to ask her about these new ranking factors for Google.

What are Core Web Vitals?

“Short version: Core Web Vitals come down to page speed and user experience,” says Jenna. “It calculates the amount of time certain elements take to load on your web page and tells Google what kind of experience someone will have on that page. This is one of Google’s attempts to measure user experience.”

What is a Core Web Vitals Update?

Several metrics form Core Web Vitals. When Google updates, such as with the Core Web Vitals update, they seek to provide a more individualized browsing experience. As with most of its processes and algorithms, Google isn’t telling us how these metrics are weighted compared to each other.

Jenna laughs and says, “That’s Google! They don’t like to give us these updates on a shiny platter. You really have to see how your site is impacted, make a strategy, and learn more about the new approach.”

Core Web Vitals Metrics

Even though we don’t have the exact details of how Core Web Vitals are balanced, we can understand how it affects your business and website. Let’s take a closer look at the ranking factors that form Core Web Vitals:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). The next time you visit a website, take a moment to watch how everything loads: content, images, and design elements will all appear at slightly different rates. LCP measures that load speed. It records how fast the largest content placed on a page is visible to users.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). CLS measures a page’s visible stability, meaning how often viewers see elements shifting on a page. Unintended shifts or movement can cause users to lose their place and have an unsatisfactory experience on your site.
• First Input Delay (FID). FID tracks the time that passes between a user interacting with an element of your site (clicking a link, for example) and how long it takes to produce the desired result (moving to a new page). Lagging sites with long load times cause frustration and influence the overall experience.

While we don’t know where Google places the most importance, you can determine which metric impacts your site the most. “Personally, the LCP is the biggest element for me,” Jenna says. “Usually, that’s one of the things that lags the most. While users won’t notice the lag that much, Google does, so it’s a good place to start.”

Why are Core Web Vitals Important?

As we’ve already covered, there are two main ways that Core Web Vitals affect your business: experience and speed.

Experience is essential for your customer base. If your website is your digital storefront, you want to make a great impression for anyone who “stops in” for a visit. Your layout should be consistent, buttons and links should perform as expected, and there shouldn’t be significant lag times in loading. After all, if these elements don’t fall into place, your visitors may lose trust in you as a B2B partner and take their business elsewhere.

Page speed is more important as a Google ranking factor. When we talk about loading lag times, we’re often speaking in terms of kiloseconds. Most users may barely notice the lag, but Google is not most users. Too many lags or page instabilities will cause your site to fall further down the list of search results, which means fewer people will find you and your services or products. “Not always, but sometimes, Core Web Vitals are used as a tie-breaker between sites,” Jenna explains. “So, instead of hitting a top-five result, you may fall to seventh, tenth, or further down the line.”

Jenna also points out that Core Web Vitals will be more of an issue for newer sites or for businesses who haven’t worked with a digital marketing partner like Ecreative. She says, “Core Web Vitals are going to be really important for businesses who haven’t done much with the back end of their website or SEO before. These behind-the-scenes factors can get missed or neglected while building a new website.”

Do Core Web Vitals Affect SEO?

Yes! At Ecreative, we understand how overwhelming the world of search engine optimization and webpage development can be. If you’re interested in learning more about how to check your site’s optimization, how to improve your pages’ Core Web Vitals, or exploring your options for improving your users’ experiences, you’re in the right place. Digital Marketing Specialists are here to help. We keep track of Google algorithm updates so that you don’t have to worry about them.

Ecreative’s expert team is ready to untangle the messy world of search engine optimization to deliver tangible results for your business and a better Google rank for your site. We offer marketing insights, copywriting services, and website design to provide a seamless experience for your site’s visitors.

Contact Us to Learn How We Can Help