Core Web Vitals are a particular set of user-focused metrics which have been specifically created to calculate a site’s ability to offer a smooth and fast user experience. This set of metrics has been designed by Google precisely to analyze in detail all the most important aspects for the proper functioning of a website. This has been possible thanks to the constant improvement of the algorithm, which is becoming more and more precise every year and able to greatly improve the user experience on any website.
This process is aimed at the analysis and improvement of three main factors, such as content loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. This way, those who own a website will be able to understand how fast their site is to load content, how long it takes to become functional, and how easy it is for a user to navigate and find what they need. All of these factors are extremely important for the success of a site or e-commerce: fast and easy websites generally have much higher Core Web Vital scores.
This leads to a better Google ranking and to an increase in the conversion rate. In addition to that, visitors are less likely to abandon a fast and performing website. Nowadays managing a website can become very simple thanks to the invaluable help provided by some specialized companies such as Aritmetika, whose job is to manage all the processes related to the optimization of website performance for their customers. For a better comprehension of this matter keep reading: in the following paragraphs, we’ll show you the different metrics of Core Web Vitals and how to use them to improve your website performance.
Core Web Vitals different metrics
As previously mentioned, Core Web Vitals indicates a set of metrics used by Google to measure UX more accurately. All of these factors, which are related to the loading speed, the interactivity, and the stability of a website’s content, are really important both for the site performance and user experience. Google calculates these scores both on desktop and mobile in order to improve the site visibility. Let’s have a look at the different Core Web Vitals metrics:
- First Contentful Paint refers to the amount of time it takes for the site to load content;
- Speed Index refers to the rate at which the content is displayed when loading the page;
- The largest Contentful Paint is the amount of time it takes for the page to completely load content for the user;
- Time to Interactive is the time it takes for a user or customer to actually have an interaction with your website’s pages;
- Total Blocking Time is the time frame between the loading of the page and the moment it actually becomes functional;
- Cumulative Layout Shift refers to the stability of a website’s page or the calculation of how much the visual elements move during loading
Why Core Web Vitals are important
Basically, Core Web Vitals are real performance indicators of a website’s user experience. This obviously translates into a really satisfied user (or customer) and into a very good Google ranking. As a matter of fact, Core Web Vitals metrics are fundamental factors on which google relies to understand which are the best sites to be included in its ranking. The higher your site will appear on Google’s SERP, the better its performance will be. These values are also really important for UX: some studies have in fact proven that most users will abandon a website if it takes longer than a few seconds to load its content. It doesn’t matter if the site or the products it sells are high quality: if the pages take too long to load, the user will opt for another similar but faster site, so for a competitor. That’s why Core Web Vitals are so important for the success of a website because they provide precious help in the quantification of how enjoyable it is for users. They also help customers find your site more easily during a search.
