Google is working on a new search ranking signal that incorporates the recently introduced Core Web Vitals as part of its plans to better evaluate the overall experience of webpages.
In a blog post late last week, Google said that the Core Web Vitals will be combined with existing user experience metrics such as mobile-friendliness and HTTPS security.
All of these factors will be evaluated by Google as it looks to determine the quality of a page experience and serve up more relevant results to users in search.
While Google revealed its plans for the super-charged signal on Thursday (28th May), it is not expected to launch until 2021 at the earliest.
This is because the signal is currently in the early stages of development and needs more time for testing before an official launch.
Google’s latest work builds on the Core Web Vitals it outlined in early May.
The vitals are made of three factors: ‘loading’, ‘interactivity’ and ‘visual stability’.
The loading metric is called Largest Content Paint and is determined by the amount of time it takes for the main content on a page to load.
A score of over four seconds is defined as ‘poor’, while anything lower than 2.5 seconds is ‘good’.
The interactivity metric is called First Input Delay.
This is a measure of how long it takes for a page to become interactive, with anything below 100ms being ‘good’.
Finally, visual stability is linked to something called Cumulate Layout Shift, which takes into account the unexpected shift in visual content on a page.
A measurement of less than 0.1 is ideal.
Google says that these “user-centered” metrics enables it to quantity the user experience.
It notes: “Optimizing for these factors makes the web more delightful for users across all web browsers and surfaces, and helps sites evolve towards user expectations on mobile.”
By revealing the details about the new signal now, webmasters and SEOs will be able to prepare accordingly.
