Catch up on why SEOs, SEMs, and Social gurus are chattering about Google’s Core Web Vitals and find resources to learn about LCP, FID, and CLS.

Core Web Vitals are, well… Vital 🩺

Google Search’s Core Web Vitals update is coming soon! Are your pages prepared? Do you not even know what we are talking about? Do you still need help figuring out how to update your site to meet the new standards? Fear not! We have the resources for all of you!

• Core Web Vitals Becoming Ranking Signals in May 2021 (Search Engine Journal)
  Originally announced in May 2020, Core Web Vitals are Google’s method for quantifying user experience on websites and were set to become a part of a page’s search ranking as of May 2021. This meant that Google was giving developers a whole year to prepare for it.
• SEOs rejoice: Core web vitals release moves to June (Search Engine Land)
  Not to worry though, Google decided in April of 2021 to give everyone another month to prepare. The new date of start is mid-June, and the update won’t finish rolling out until August.
• Evaluating page experience for a better web (Google Search Central)
  Also, of luck for those looking to prepare, there are measurable metrics that web developers can review to evaluate their websites, and Google has openly listed them. These metrics are referred to as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
• How to audit Core Web Vitals (Search Engine Land)
  There are a number of ways that web developers and SEO’s can audit their pages to ensure they meet current standards, and Search Engine Land has put together a good list of these.
• What Are Core Web Vitals? + How to Improve Yours (Hubspot)
  But maybe you are still confused on what Core Web Vitals are? No worries. Hubspot has a great quick read to get your head around the topic.
• Core Web Vitals & Page Experience FAQs (Google Search Console Help)
  Or you could go straight to the source for your answers. Just remember that Core Web Vitals are only one of hundreds of signals Google uses to rank your pages on search.
• Analyzing 2 Million URLs: What We Learned About Core Web Vitals (Search Engine Journal)
  So how does your website compare to everyone else on the web in terms of Core Web Vitals? And are Google’s benchmarks even realistic to pursue? In their recent study, Searchmetrics found that “less than 4% of U.S. websites … analyzed achieve a “good” score in all three Core Web Vitals.”

Takeaway:

As you probably know, Google holds an incredible amount of power on the internet, and if you want your site to be seen, you will need to play by their rules. Ultimately, this update is about ensuring your website loads quickly and effortlessly, and that it does not distract viewers from the main content of the page. So following Core Web Vitals’ best practices should make your site easier and more engaging to view for potential customers, which is not a bad thing. However, while Core Web Vitals are new, the idea of working toward a “more delightful” (Google’s words) user experience has been around for a long time and should be something you are already pursuing and refining.

Other News We Found Interesting:

• New resources for video SEO (Google Search Central Blog)
• Facebook Shares New Tips on Building Brand While Driving Direct Response Through Ad Campaigns (Social Media Today)
• TikTok Provides New Business Tips and Resource Guides (Social Media Today)

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