Google’s algorithm now includes core web vitals to encourage developers to focus on user experience instead of simply producing content. Core web vitals use three factors to determine a page’s experience score:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)- how long it takes a page to load for a user
- First Input Delay (FID)- the time it takes for a user to interact with your page
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)- how stable a page is as it loads
Ideally, you would want a page that loads quickly, doesn’t move around as it’s loading, and allows people to interact with it as soon as possible.
Though creating great content and having an effective SEO strategy are still priorities, you can’t underestimate the importance of positive user experiences. Now that Google’s algorithm takes these core web vitals into account when ranking web pages, you have to make sure you cover all your bases. Otherwise, you could rank lower than you’d like and it might disrupt the traffic to your site.
