The term “Core Web Vitals” has been floating around, but what are they?
Here are the Core Web Vital basics your dealership needs to know.
Core Web Vitals are going to influence Google’s algorithm as part of its page experience update. There are three metrics related to a user’s site experience in the Google Search Console:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – How long it takes for page to load
- First Input Delay (FID) – How long it takes a user to interact with a page element
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – How visually stable the page is as it loads
LARGEST CONTENTFUL PAINT (LCP)
LPC measures the length of time it takes for your site to render most of the elements on a given webpage. LCP times can vary depending based on user device or on the content/images on the webpage.
Examples:
- Images
- Links
- Headings
- Paragraphs
Why Does This Matter?
To provide a good user experience, your website should strive to have LCP time of 4 seconds or less.
How to Troubleshoot with Your Web Provider?
- Remove unnecessary third-party scripts & pop-ups
- Set up lazy image loading
- Remove large page elements
FIRST INPUT DELAY (FID)
FID measures the time it takes for a user to interact with an element on the page once it has rendered and it measures the time it takes a user to interact with something on your site.
Examples:
- Clicking a link in the navigation
- Clicking a button
- Choosing a menu item
- Accessing a contact form
Why Does This Matter?
Users are more likely to interact with your website if elements render quickly. The best metric is less than 100 milliseconds before someone interacts with a page element.
How to Troubleshoot with Your Web Provider?
- Minimize or defer JavaScript
- Remove unnecessary third-party scripts & pop-ups
CUMULATIVE LAYOUT SHIFT (CLS)
CLS is a type of movement that causes frustration for users, it is when shifts occur on a webpage that are unstable and jump to different locations after a user tries to interact with the element.
Example:
A customer is trying to subscribe to an email newsletter, only to have the form move to a completely different location on the website page.
Why Does This Matter?
Page stability is crucial to a user’s experience on your site. A 0.1 Cumulative Layout Shift is “Good” while 0.3 or more Cumulative Layout Shifts is “Poor.”
How to Troubleshoot with Your Web Provider?
- Set size attributes for media
- Earmark reserved space on the page
- Add new UI elements below the fold
L2T’s SEO Team Will Help You Track Your Core Web Vitals
L2T’s SEO team monitors our client’s website performance based on Core Web Vitals. We are happy to work with your website provider, on your behalf, to communicate any performance issues.
We want to make sure our clients have a high-performing website and ensure that you do not lose your website page rank in SERP.