Web Vitals is Google’s initiative to sprioritize optimization efforts for websites and apps based on key aspects that actually affect the user experience.
Spis treści
What is Web Vitals?
To put it in human terms, the idea of Web Vitals tells us to stop looking only at the points our site receives in a PageSpeed or GTmetrix speed test. Instead, it proposes measuring primarily specific indicators that have a real impact on the user experience.
Core Web Vitals
At the moment, the set of key indicators, called Core Web Vitals, prepared for 2020 includes 3 elements: LCP, FID, CLS.
These indicators, will evolve and adapt to the spirit of the times.
A loosely accepted rule of thumb is that the results for these basic indicators should be within the 75th percentile compared to other sites.
LCP – Largest Contentful Paint
LCP is the time it takes for a site to load the largest content item found in the viewport. Such an element can be a graphic, a video, or a block of text.
This indicator should be less than 2.5 seconds.
FID – First Input Delay
FID is the time after which interaction with the site is possible. In other words, it is the time between the start of loading and the moment when the browser is able to respond to an interaction (such as clicking a link, a button, or performing some custom Javascript action).
This indicator should settle below 100 milliseconds.
CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift
CLS is an indicator that measures any unexpected content shifts that appear suddenly while the site is loading (or later).
To measure CLS, we need to measure the distance by which the item is moved and the amount of screen over which this action occurs (from the top edge of the item in the starting position, to the bottom edge after the move). Both values are converted to a fraction indicating what part of the viewport they represent and multiplied with each other.
This indicator should be below 0.1.
How to measure these indicators?
For now, all of these metrics are measured by the Chrome User Experience Report. You can also measure them using Javascript and an extension for Chrome available on Github.
We will measure FID right now, for example, through PageSpeed Insights or Search Console.
Soon, data on all Core Web Vitals for sites will appear in PageSpeed Insights and Search Consoli.
Our commentOn the one hand, it’s great that Google is finally making it clear that cranking out 100% in speed test results doesn’t make sense and you need to focus on real indicators. However, on the other hand. The thing with Google’s initiatives to “do good for users” is usually that the initiatives primarily “do good” for Google itself. AMP technology is a prime example – theoretically focused on fast delivery of content to users, it incidentally creates a competitive advantage and room for abuse for the Mountain View giant. In this case, such a threat is not seen, but vigilance does not help 🙂 .
Edit:
It’s been 3 weeks and Core Web Vitals is now available in Google Search Console. If you can’t find this report in a Polish language version, it’s no wonder. After all, in Polish it was called “Basic Internet indicators” :).
