Core Web Vitals Study Review — Marcus Tober // Searchmetrics

Quotes

• 01:35 : Why did Marcus do a study on Core Web Vitals?

• Core Web Vitals will be part of the Google Page Experience update. Upon learning this, Marcus conducted a study to find out exactly how this will affect your web pages going forward. Marcus talks about the motivation behind the study.

• 02:27 : Why are people not meeting Googles standards?

• Ben and Marcus talk about what are Googles Core Web Vitals and why most websites arent meeting the requirements. According to Marcus study, only a small number of websites actually hit the mark. Marcus references cumulative layout shift as the main pain point for most websites that dont pass. Marcus study also talks about page insights metrics. He explains how page insights and core web vitals work hand-in-hand.

• 06:01 : The top elements that help your page to rank

• Marcus talks about the correlation between your page rank and your largest contentful paint score. According to his study, if you have a higher LCP score then your page is likely to rank higher. Marcus discusses other elements such as the total byte weight of your site and how this also affects your Google rank.

• 08:06 : Causation vs Correlation: Whats really affecting your page rank?

• Ben and Marcus get into causation and correlation when it comes to where you rank. It all boils down to your page priorities when loading. Try optimizing your CSS, images, and JavaScript to lower your total byte weight. Ben and Marcus compare different strategies that large companies like Amazon use to make their pages load faster.

• 10:46 : How do YouTube videos affect your page speed?

• Ben and Marcus compare how Google ranks YouTube versus how Google ranks other websites. While YouTube doesnt necessarily meet the mark for coreweb vitals either but it somehow, still gets ranked well for a slow website. Marcus talks about the impact that including YouTube videos on your website can have in your page speed.

• 13:22 : What should you really be doing to rank well in Google?

• Marcus talks in detail about why the core web vitals are now being included in the Google Page Experience update. Using actual user data, data takes the average performance of your website every 28. So you dont have to be alarmed if your page doesnt perform well on one day. Marcus discusses what data will be used and what will be ignored, citing largest contentful paint as one of the more important elements to focus on.

• 15:13 : Core web vitals as a tie-breaker

• Marcus explains the concepts of how core web vitals work as a tie-breaker in a competitive space. If youre into eCommerce and you have most things in common with your competitor as it relates to products and pricing, the difference will be in your core web vitals. Meeting Googles standards will get your content shown before that of your competition. Ben talks about how you can use a competitive analysis to make educated adjustments to your website when trying to meet core web vitals.

• 16:40 : The biggest correlation between ranking and core web vital metrics

• Ben and Marcus talk about the metrics that you need to focus on to pass core web vitals. Total byte weight plays a massive part in whether or not you meet Googles standards. To put it plainly, smaller, leaner pages have a better contentful paint score, which also affects total byte weight. Your total byte weight affects all the other elements at play on your page. Ben and Marcus discuss optimization strategies for meeting core web vitals when the update comes.

• 20:14 : When to find Marcus study on core web vitals

• Marcus tells where you can find his detailed study on core web vitals. The study can be downloaded from the knowledge base on the Searchmetrics website.