Core Web Vitals 2021 Google update postponed until June
They have also stated that the full ranking signal changes won’t come into effect until late-August.
Google have announced that their upcoming ranking signal update – Core Web Vitals – has been postponed until June.
They have also stated that the full ranking signal changes won’t come into effect until late-August.
In this post we will cover what the new update is, and why the delay is good news for businesses still getting to grips with Core Web Vitals.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Google has defined its Web Vitals as “an initiative to provide unified guidance for quality signals that are essential to delivering a great user experience on the web.”
As SERPs become increasingly more competitive, Google has shifted its focus away from simply looking at keywords and backlinks in recent years, towards other quality metrics such as user experience, to ensure that the content they are delivering to its users will satisfy their search intent.
Google has introduced three Core Web Vitals that focus on three specific aspects of a user’s experience – loading, interactivity and visual stability:
- Largest Contentful Paint: The time it takes for a page’s main content to load. An ideal LCP measurement is less than or equal to 2.5 seconds.
- First Input Delay: The time it takes for a page to become interactive. An ideal measurement is less than or equal to 100 ms.
- Cumulative Layout Shift: The amount of unexpected layout shift of visual page content. An ideal measurement is less than or equal to 0.1.
There has been rumblings that all three Core Web Vitals may need to be met in order to benefit from the ranking changes. So, it will be best to optimise for all three rather than one or two.
The upcoming ranking signal will be known as the page experience signal, and will consist of the above Core Web Vitals as well as its existing page experience quality metrics:
- Mobile-friendliness – your website is accessible and usable via mobile devices.
- Browser safety – visitors are not at risk from harmful content and external threats from your website.
- HTTPS – your website has a valid SSL certificate
- Intrusive interstitial guidelines – ads and popups do not interfere with the user experience on a mobile screen.
Why is the postponement good news for businesses?
The good thing about Google’s Core Web Vitals update being postponed is that it gives you more time to ensure your website is fully optimised and up to date.
If you use Google’s Search Console you may have noticed they have already added a new feature which is the Page Experience Report tool.
This is a great opportunity to check how your website and pages will compare and rank against the new changes. This will give you a head start to ensure search bots will rank you highly when the new Core Web Vitals come in!
How we can help
If you don’t know where to start with Core Web Vitals, our Search Award shortlisted team are here to help.
We offer reliable hosting options that deliver lightning fast, scalable, highly available and secure experiences that will help you achieve the page speed requirements setup by Google.
And, with a team of qualified Google Partners, we will help you create a unique search engine optimisation strategy for your business that focuses on the three core pillars of SEO, not just Core Web Vitals, to ensure that your website is equipped to succeed in search engines.
To learn more about how we can help you prepare for Core Web Vitals, get in touch with one of the team!