June 3, 20202 min

UX is getting a seat at the SEO table

New user-centric performance metrics from Google Search


UX is getting a seat at the SEO table

New user-centric performance metrics from Google Search

https://blog.chromium.org/2020/05/introducing-web-vitals-essential-metrics.html

Note: This feature is yet to be rolled out. It is expected to be rolled out next year, and as per the blog, users will get a 6-month notice before these changes are implemented.

Google search will start factoring user experience into its search ranking algorithms along with other vitals it considers while generating the search results.

It’s not that with just the best page experience, you will be on the top of the search results without the right information. But in cases where there are many pages with similar information, page experience will be much more important to stay on top of the results.


According to the blog the new metrics which will be part of the ranking algorithms are,

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):

Measures loading performance. To provide good user experience, sites should strive to have LCP occur within the first 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load.

First Input Delay (FID):

Measures interactivity. To provide good user experience, sites should strive to have an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):

Measures visual stability. To provide good user experience, sites should strive to have a CLS score of less than 0.1.

https://blog.chromium.org/2020/05/introducing-web-vitals-essential-metrics.html


Some useful links to measure and learn about the web vitals are,

Evaluating page experience for a better webThrough both internal studies and industry research, users show they prefer sites with a great page experience. In…webmasters.googleblog.com

User-centric performance metricsWe’ve all heard how important performance is. But when we talk about performance-and about making websites “fast”-what…web.dev

PageSpeed InsightsHave specific, answerable questions about using PageSpeed Insights? Ask your question on Stack Overflow. For general…developers.google.com

Web VitalsEssential metrics for a healthy site Optimizing for quality of user experience is key to the long-term success of any…web.dev

Tools to measure Core Web VitalsYour favorite developer tools can now measure the Core Web Vitals. The recently announced Web Vitals initiative…web.dev

Originally published on Medium