Core Web Vitals Google Update 2021: How To Not Mess Up

As SEO professionals, we are at the mercy of Google. Even minor changes to their platforms and algorithms can make a huge difference in the performance of our websites and how they rank. Google makes these changes like clockwork, and like clockwork, SEOs can get caught off guard. We know it’s coming...

Google already announced that the Core Web Vitals will become ranking signals starting in May 2021. With this update, we know that Google will combine Core Web Vitals and previous user experience-related signals.

Why is Web Core Vitals so important? We can measure sites based on a new standard of the “real world” experience users have when visiting your site. This view is made up of three new pieces.

The first is Largest Contentful Paint (also called LCP, because we all NEED more acronyms!). Essentially answers the question: How fast does the page load in the viewport, - otherwise known as the screen you’re looking at - your phone, tablet, or desktop.
The second is Cumulative Layout Shift (or CLS), which measures visual stability. Visual stability is all about whether elements on the page shift in ways that users might not expect and maybe even mess up their interactions with the site.
The third is First Input Delay (which you’ll see referred to as FID). This one measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page, such as clicking a like or a button, to when the browser is actually able to begin processing responses to interactions.

Let’s look at how to tell if your site measures up for these new standards. Google has a handful of easy-to-use tools to analyze your site. First, Search Console can rate your Mobile and Desktop URLs as “poor,” “needs improvement,” or “good.” Digging in a little deeper, you can click, “Open Report” to see where CLS, LCP and FID come into play for either your desktop or mobile site along with a list of adjustments you need to make.

Also, Google’s John Mueller said that come March 2021 Google will switch to the new mobile index and that desktop only sites will be dumped from their index. Time is important because some of the site improvements you’ll want in 2021 will require a developer, so it’s important to start work now on these items. Let’s be real. Trying to tackle the updates in one shot won’t work. And you’ll just make your dev team annoyed. So use the winter months to your advantage! Get your team working on this now so you have time to make changes and wait for Google’s responses.

So how do you prepare your website for the next Google core algorithm update? Where do you start?

Start in the Semrush Site Audit. Many of the items Google will report in the tools we discussed are at your disposal and are laid out really clearly in Semrush. We ran this site through PageSpeed Insights and through our tool.

The Semrush Site Audit tool can help uncover potential gaps right now. Let’s bring out our inner tech geek for a moment: By addressing items such as uncompressed JavaScript and CSS files, or issues with unminified JavaScript and CSS files or uncached files or uncompressed pages, you can drive improvements to First Input Delay and Largest Contentful Paint for your site!

We encourage you to fix all issues to win Google's favor and power up your ranking potential. Today, let us add this addition, We encourage you and your team to fix all issues in our Site Audit to win Google’s favor and power up your ranking potential BEFORE May 2021.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:17 Some very good memes, that are not so good if you’re the protagonist :)
01:07 The 3 main parts of Core Web Vitals
01:09 LCP and what it does
01:28 CLS and what it measures
01:44 FID and what it measures
04:23 How long’s gonna take Google to check your fixes
05:05 How can Semrush help?
07:05 Subscribe
07:10 Outro

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[semrush]

Hey guys! We'd love to hear some horror/happy stories about Google updates here, and also, if you have any suggestions for future contents please let us know 😉👇

[TheSEOPub]

Great video, but what you described as LCP is not accurate. It is not how fast the page loads in the viewport. It's the load time of the largest image or text block visible in the viewport. In other words, it's one specific element in the viewport, not the whole thing.

[ciufy]

I work on my site from septembre 2020 and now i have 95 on mobile and 100 on desktop 🥰 now i am on 2-5 Page from my niche and keywords ! I hope in May i will be on first Page 🤗my competition have 15-20 on mobile, and on desktop 40-57 maxim

[janewilson]

Your videos are getting better and better! Great job! 👍

[fantasticwildlife]

Google​ core update destroyed my business. I bought a review site with over 950 UPVs for 6 months for 19K. Income dropped to $180 from $1000. They should have more responsibility to send traffic off a cliff and destroy incomes.

[WebFX]

This is a great overview of the Core Web Vitals update. 2021 will be an interesting year!

[BMCTackle]

Great job! Good info. Long way to go with fixes on my end. Lot's of improvements on my end, but still somewhat l limited with proprietary shopping cart software that can't be changed due to no access to HTMl, Java, and other parts that play a role in the core web values. These are the areas we are having challenges with. Improvements none the less, so there has been progress as far as we can take it / things we can improve.