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Google Core Vitals

robert hughes • Aug 28, 2021

Google Core Vitals Update

This past June and July, Google has performed some core updates that focus mainly on website speed. If your website is slow, it tends to cause your website to experience bounce backs and lose potential sales. Google has noticed this in their search results, which is one reason why they have raised the bar regarding page speed. This isn’t the first time that Google has mentioned speed as a core ranking factor. The difference this time is that they are addressing more specifics and implying that speed is becoming a bigger ranking factor.

Page speed ranking factors are mostly observed on the mobile side of websites. This can result in a struggle for mobile to achieve all the ranking factors vs. desktop view. Since Google favors mobile views, mobile website views are getting a lot more searches than desktop views. This makes speed an important factor to rank well on mobile.

Luckily, Google has provided us some helpful tools to improve these new updates. One tool by Google is called Page Speed Insights, which allows you to track the page speed for your website. It shows you where you rank on speed and gives you a list of what you need to fix. Be sure to pay special attention to the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) as these are signaled as Google’s core vitals. For example, here is a screenshot:

Another great tool that is provided by Google, is their Google Search Console under the core vitals section. It will let you know if your website is failing the core vitals test and allows you to resubmit your website after you increase the speed. If your website is failing the core vitals, you should focus on fixing the areas that need improvement.

The ranking factors might not have taken full effect yet, so take this time to make sure that you have your website ready. You don’t want your website to start dropping down on the search results. If you have not already tried out the tools provided by Google, go check them out! You will find them very useful.

If you need consulting on this or any other SEO services you can contact RJH Solutions 6 today at 940-343-5055. We offer Virtual Online Marketing Services across the US and In-Person Online Marketing / SEO services local to the Dallas Fort Worth Area.