Just a few weeks ago, Google announced its new ‘Core Web Vitals’ update to help improve the way it evaluates the overall user experience of a site. The three new core vitals include loading time, interactivity and visual stability.
While we’re all still waiting for this update to happen, there are plenty of updates being trickled out about how it is all going to work.
Here is everything we know so far about the new Core Web Vital update.
How the algorithm will be specifically measuring user experience
These new Core Vitals are putting user experience at the forefront of the algorithm.
Similar to the ‘Medic’ update in 2018, this new Core update will massively impact, both positively and negatively, a large number of sites. However, unlike the Medic update, which mainly focused on E-A-T content, this new update is looking at a website’s usability.
With this latest information, we now have a clearer idea of how and what this includes. The new update will be looking at the following in terms of how it ranks the user experience of a site:
- Mobile-friendliness
- Load time
- Safe browsing
- Stability of content
- HTTPS
- Interstitials
With these in mind, it should make planning these changes ahead of the smaller updates noticeably easier.
Core Web Vitals can now be measured without Chrome UX Report
When Google announced the Core Vitals update, they were only measurable using the Chrome UX report. However, and luckily for some of us, Google is adding measuring capabilities to its existing tools. Now, you can measure these core vitals using the following:
- Search Console
- PageSpeed Insights
- Lighthouse
- Chrome DevTools
- Chrome UX Report
- Web Vitals Extension
AMP requirement scrapped for Top Stories carousel
As of April, in response to COVID-related content, Google made a change to its Top Stories carousel so search results would provide both AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) and non-AMP stories. This meant that smaller publications, such as local news sites, would be featured.
Fast-forward to today and Google has decided to make this update permanent meaning that it will no longer require sites to be an AMP to feature.
This will be a factor when considering load time for pages and or websites and is something that developers or editors of content-based sites should be planning for.
Summary
With so much going on in the world, this latest update has been hit with a lot of criticism.
However, Google responded to this with some clarification that the update won’t actually be happening for about a year. Plus, Google will also give at least six months’ notice before starting to roll this update out.
Hopefully, this should give websites the time needed to invest and make any relevant changes to ensure that they benefit from the newest update.
So, if you’ve been putting off optimising images or redesigning the mobile layout of your site, now is the time to make these your top priority.
If you’re looking for guidance or advice on your company website or brand, get in touch with us at team@modo25.com.
