Google Core Web
Vitals &
Roadblocks to
Success
An SEOPerspective
What is covered
• What is Google doing and why?
• The Core Web Vitals
• Largest Contentful Paint
• Cumulative Layout Shift
• First Input Delay
Performance reporting and metrics
can be inaccessible to some
Simplify the landscape – focus on
what matters most
Not a ‘primary’ ranking factor
“Like any other search engine, Google works hard to surface the
highest quality and most relevant results for users'
queries. CWV has nothing to do with either of those, not
even remotely, so it's extremely unlikely that CWV would ever become "the
primary factor for Organic Traffic".
That's not to say you can ignore CWV, though.”
Gary Illyes / Google
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Measuring perceived load speed
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https://webpagetest.org/
Advert blindness
Chrome Dev Tools LCP
Larger image than the logo
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I like LCP, it seems simple
enough but it’s not as simple
or polished as it could be.
Cumulative Layout Shift
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Looking at layout shift is a
great addition – without Web
Page Test we could be a bit
lost trying to analyse it.
First Input Delay
“Your call is
important to use,
please hold…”
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Main thread is busy
performing tasks
User clicks/makes an
input on the page
Action is delayed and queued
until the current task is finished
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It’s nothing new, if you were
stuck on this before you will
probably be stuck on it
now…but most sites are fine!
Remember CWV’s
are one element of
technical SEO and
focus could be
better spent
elsewhere.
Steve Bailey
Head of Technical SEO
steve@spike.digital

Google Core Web Vitals & Roadblocks to Success