As a business owner with a website, you’re already ahead of 27% of small businesses that still don’t have a website. Congratulations!
But simply having a roofing website doesn’t mean your work is done. You need to optimize your website to Google’s standards to maximize the revenue you can generate from it.
That’s where web vitals and Google’s designated core web vitals come into play. In this blog post, we’ll explain the core web vitals and why they matter. Let’s jump in!
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Web vitals are standardized metrics that calculate user experience based on factors that Google determines are essential. Google focuses on three web vitals, known as the Core Web Vitals.
Google’s Core Web Vitals
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Until recently, Google included First Input Delay (FID) as a core web vital. INP replaced this metric in March of 2024.
Let’s take a closer look at each Core Web Vital.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Google’s recommended LCP score: <2.5 seconds.
LCP measures your website’s loading performance. Google calculates your LCP score by measuring the time it takes for your webpage to load its largest piece of content.
This means that when someone clicks on your website, they should see the largest piece of content on your page within 2.5 seconds.
Here are a few potential issues that could lead to slow load times for your LCP:
- Oversized files
- Uncompressed images
- Bad hosting
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Google’s recommended INP score: <200 milliseconds
INP measures page responsiveness by tracking all user interactions. Clicks, taps, or keyboard interactions count as interactions.
For example, when someone clicks a button in your website’s navigation bar, it should load instantly. If it lags, this could negatively impact your INP score.
Key Difference Between INP and FID
Before implementing INP as a core web vital, Google used First Input Delay (FID) to measure page responsiveness. FID only used the first interaction to calculate its score, whereas INP considers all page interactions.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Google’s recommended CLS score: <.1
CLS measures your website’s visual stability by calculating how many layout shifts occur during a user’s visit. When a visual element on your webpage changes its position or size, this is called a layout shift.
Google measures how much elements move around the screen on your website and uses this information to calculate your CLS score.
Why Core Web Vitals Are Crucial for Your Website
Like meta descriptions, your website’s Core Web Vital scores impact SEO rankings. These scores ensure that Google’s Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) aren’t filled with websites that take 20 seconds to load.
Google doesn’t want its users to have a poor experience on websites they found from Google SERPs.
To prove to Google that your website deserves a top spot on those SERPs, you need to ensure your website has healthy Core Web Vital scores.
Google prioritizes user experience, and you should too. If your website has poor Core Web Vital scores, not only will Google ding your SEO ranking, but users may avoid visiting your website because of it.
According to Google research, the likelihood of a user leaving your page jumps to 32% when the load time increases from 1 to 3 seconds.
You don’t want your website to have a high bounce rate, and you definitely don’t want your website on page 2 or 3 of Google search results.
That’s why it’s essential to understand and build your website with the Core Web Vitals in mind.
How to Check Your Core Web Vital Scores
Google offers a Core Web Vitals report that website owners can use to check their page performance.
Additionally, several Google Chrome Extensions can check your Core Web Vital scores.
Our Roofer Marketers team also currently offers a free marketing audit that goes through your roofing website and evaluates the following items:
- Google Ads
- Local keywords
- Global keywords
- Crawl accessibility
- Compelling content
- Keyword optimization
- Title tags
- Meta descriptions
- H1 tags
Optimize Your Roofing Website
When you understand how Core Web Vitals work, you can pinpoint areas on your website that need improvement and optimization. By harnessing the power of Core Web Vitals, you can design a website that prioritizes user experience and earns you a top spot on Google SERPs.
However, website management can be complicated, no matter how educated you are.
The moment you understand Core Web Vital metrics, Google could decide to change which web vitals it focuses on. Working with our expert team of marketers can make this process easier and help you see results. See how your website stands with a free website analysis today!
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