Google Search Console Update has been monitoring website performance for quite some time now, but until now we’ve only been able to see the performance of our entire site rather than specific pages. This means that if you have a site with hundreds of pages, it’s hard to know which ones need the most attention and which are performing best.
With this latest update, the Google Search Console update will start reporting on the Core Web Vitals (CWV) scores of specific URLs, in addition to aggregate scores for URL groups.
How does this update work?
Google Search Console and the update have started collecting the metrics that they use to calculate the CWV scores from all pages of all your sites and will start reporting this data in Search Console. This update will allow you to see exactly which pages on your site are costing you clicks, and to take action to fix them. The metrics that Google Search Console Update will report are:
– Load Time: This is the time it takes for a page to be fully loaded and will be reported in both average seconds and as a percentile – for example, a page with a load time of 5.2 seconds is in the bottom 10% for load times for this URL.
– Visually Complete: This is the percentage of the page that is fully rendered and can be seen by users. This refers to the parts of the page that may be invisible to users, such as the code that runs the site, rather than visible elements like images and text. –
First Meaningful Paint: This is the time between the browser requesting the page and when the first thing on the page is visible to users. This is only reported for desktop browsers.
– First Contentful Paint: This is similar to the above metric, but for mobile browsers. It’s the time between when the page is requested and when the first meaningful content is displayed.
– Consistency: This is a measure of how consistent the page is. It will be reported as low, medium, or high.
What are Core Web Vitals?
The metrics that Search Console will report are all based on Google’s Core Web Vitals. These are a set of metrics that Google has been using for a few years to measure the performance of websites. In addition to the metrics themselves, Google also calculates a CWV score for each metric, ranging from A+ to F. This metric is based on the percentile of all sites that have been measured for that particular metric, as well as a normal distribution of errors.
Which URLs will be tracked?
This data will be collected for all the pages of all your sites, even those hosted on subdomains. The metrics, however, will be collected only for the URLs that have been crawled by Google. Google will also consider data collected on the current URL rather than the previous URL.
Google will take the URL that you are currently measuring as the canonical URL, even if you are currently tracking a different URL as the canonical. This means that if you have a page with multiple URLs, only the page that you have specified as canonical in Search Console will be used to calculate these metrics.
Why is Google doing this update?
Google’s mission is to provide the best possible experience for users who are searching for information, and that includes the speed at which websites load. As we’ve seen, site speed is an important factor for both users and Google. For users, a slow-loading website can be frustrating and make them leave your site without clicking on any of your content. For Google, slow-loading sites can also be a source of frustration.
What can you do with this data in the Google Search Console Update?
By knowing which pages are dragging down your site’s performance, you can focus your efforts on improving those pages first. This could include simply optimizing images (images are the biggest cause of slow-loading sites), compressing code, or creating better sitemaps.
You can also use this data to determine what pages you should be targeting with your content marketing efforts. This could include creating more visual content that will be easier to load or optimizing existing image-based content by compressing the images or removing excess text.
How to use the Core Web Vitals data in Search Console?
To find the CWV data for your site, go to the “Site Performance” tab in Search Console. You might need to select a different date range than the default setting in order to see the data. Once you’ve selected a date range, you’ll see a graph for the site’s overall performance, as well as graphs for each URL on your site. For each graph, you can see the metrics that were mentioned above as well as the CWV score that was calculated for that metric.
Conclusion
Google has been monitoring website performance for quite some time now, but until now we’ve only been able to see the performance of our entire site rather than specific pages. This update will allow you to see exactly which pages on your site are costing you clicks, and to take action to fix them. Ready to take action and start improving your site’s performance? Contact SEO Troop Today for your free consultation!