Google has announced a significant update to its search algorithm and how it will organise its search results.
The change won't come into effect until at least 2021, but the search provider obviously feels it's important enough to give website owners enough time to prepare.
What is Core Web Vitals?
The change centres on something Google has called 'Core Web Vitals'. Doing our best to sidestep the jargon, Core Web Vitals looks at three important things:
- Content load time - how long it takes for the content of a page to appear in front of the user
- Interactivity time - how long it takes for a page to become interactive for the user
- Stability - how much (or little) a page's content moves around once it has become visible
1. Content load time
One of the most common questions I'm asked as a consultant is 'how fast should my page load speed be', the answer I'm often forced to give is, "it depends". Now we have a definitive answer from Google: 2.5 seconds.
If your content takes longer than 2.5 seconds to load, that's too slow to be considered optimal.
2. Interactivity time
Slightly more obscure, interactivity time refers to how long it takes for a page to effectively become useable to the website visitor. Google has also provided us with its verdict on how long this should take: a blink-and-you'll-miss-it 100 milliseconds.
3. Stability
In my view, this is the most interesting. Stability refers to how stable a page is. In English, this measures whether the layout of a page jumps around after it has started to load/appear on the screen.
Many of you will be familiar with the blood-boiling sensation of moving your thumb to click on a button, only to have a last-minute pull of the rug thrust upon you where the layout of the page shifts as a new feature loads, resulting in you clicking on the wrong button.
Content and User Experience (UX)
During the announcement, Google made effort to remind everyone that content still trumps everything. If you clearly have better content, you can get away with a poorer experience.
However, where content is equal, UX will define which websites perform better. In many verticals, where competitive advantage through content alone is tough, that's significant.
Preparing for this change
There are a number of ways we can work with our clients to help prepare for this change:
- Continued monitoring of website performance to make it faster and faster
- Carrying out user research to understand what content and features your audience demands
- Carrying out UX testing to understand where your website falls short
- Introducing eye-tracking as a new way to test the performance of your website and content in the eyes of your audience (literally!)
For many of our clients who work with us on an ongoing basis, we'll be introducing enhancements in line with Google's announcement as part of our project roadmaps. If, however, you'd like to speak to us about putting in place a suitable future-facing strategy, speak to us now:
- Email [email protected]
- Call 01481 740073 (Guernsey studio) or 01865 686093 (UK studio)
To read more about this update, you can visit our sister-site, The Financial Marketeer where you can keep up to date with this and other marketing news every week.
