Google has announced Page Experience Signal as the new ranking factor which will come into play in May 2021. The new Page Experience Signal includes five signals which are as follows:
- Core Web Vitals (new)
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – measures loading performance
- First Input Delay (FID) – measures interactivity
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – measures visual stability
- Mobile-friendly
- Safe browsing
- HTTPS
- Mobile popup algorithm/no intrusive interstitials
In this article, I am only going to talk about Core Web Vitals, specifically LCP.
In the past
Google used to rank a website based on First Contentful Paint (FCP) which is the time it takes from when the page first starts loading to when an element appears on the page.
Source: https://web.dev/fcp/
In the image above, the First Contentful Paint happens in the second frame because that’s when you start seeing part of the page. The second frame doesn’t help the user at all. Some websites might have a loading indicator, and even though that is not relevant to the user, the website would still have gotten a good score from Google.
From May 2021
Google will start focusing on LCP, which is the time it takes to render the largest block of content. Content that is meaningful and ready for interaction. LCP counts the load time of the following elements:
- Images
- Video Thumbnails
- Background Images
- Text
The recommended LCP time is within 2.5s from when the page starts loading.
Magento 2 Speed Optimisations
Magento 2 website owners need to start looking at the PageSpeed score of their website and identify the areas where they can improve. Here are some easy wins that we recommend you implement to improve the performance of your Magento 2 store.
- Use Flat Catalog Category
- Use Flat Catalog Product
- Enable Compression
- Merge CSS & JS files
How we can help
The recommendations above will only take you so far. We are experts at Magento 2 Speed Optimisations, see what our clients are saying about us here. We understand the impact of Google ranking on businesses. The team at Mage2 has helped businesses rank better by developing Magento 2 websites that Google loves. If you are still unhappy with the performance of your website, after implementing the quick wins mentioned above, send us a message.
Let’s Work Together
We hope that you liked what you saw. How about we take it to the next level? Send us a message, and we can book in a meeting. Coffee on us.