Core Web Vitals – Rollout Complete: The Latest News

On 12th July Google tweeted to confirm that the update of its latest rollout was now complete. On the  Search Liaison Twitter account they had written “the July 2021 core update rollout is now effectively complete.”

The July core update began on the 1st and took a full 12 days for the rollout to be completed.  Comparatively, the first phase of this update that occurred in June took 10 days. This update is a classic core update that focuses on all sites across all regions, languages, and categories.

Google has been publishing a lot of updates lately, with reports of 10 over the last month (source: Search Engine Land).

Due to this, SEO results may be experiencing some changes and fluctuations.  If you have noticed spikes or drops that have occurred over the last 12 days, the most recent core update is very likely the cause.

In the wake of the latest core update on the 4th June and the upcoming second phase in July, we’ve spent some time chatting to our SEO team to find out more about the impact so far and how you can prepare.

What is the Core Web Vitals Update?

Basically it’s Google’s way of deciding whether or not you’re giving the ultimate experience for users.

Page speed is a crucial factor to user experience – and historically has been a massive point of frustration for users. Due to this, Google decided to develop a combination of elements to monitor page speeds.

To do this, their developers have spent a few years creating various signals that can be broken down into the 3 core vitals: loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

The new metric to measure how well a site loads is ‘Largest Contentful Paint’ or ‘LCP.’  This metric measures the time it takes for a website to present the largest element of on screen content to a user.  This metric only covers the viewport – so  this is how long it takes for the largest above fold element to load.

For quantifying the interactive performance of a site, the Google development team has created ‘First Input Delay’ or ‘FID.’  This measures the time it takes from the user’s first action – eg a button push – to the browser responding to that action.

The third core web vital metric regarding visual stability is ‘Cumulative Layout Shift’ or ‘CLS.’  CLS is the amount that a page’s layout shifts during loading.  You know when you’re reading an article and as images and other elements load in the content bounces and it’s a pain to keep your place?  This metric aims to combat that issue.

Google has now brought these metrics into a nifty little chrome extension monitoring tool called Lighthouse  – making it easy to see where you need to improve.

What changes have we seen since the rollout?

Across all forums, the one key thing that’s been agreed is that it’s been quiet.

In terms of our client’s, we’ve seen 1 or 2 dips but nothing huge.  These dips have occurred to ecommerce sites.  However, this sector has also had the product reviews algorithm update back in April and the IOS cookie update to contend with.  This doesn’t directly impact the SEO but starts to shift the game for marketers.  On the other hand, in a recent conversation between Glenn Gabe and Danny Sullivan over Twitter, Danny indicated that product review sites feeling a pinch or being impacted, is “almost certainly related to” the June core update.

This update is unusual because Google gave us a year to prepare for it.  For us at Click Intelligence, we’ve spent a lot of time prepping our clients in advance – making sure clients sites are meeting the user experience signals standard. We’ve definitely made the most of the time to get it sorted!

It’s all about monitoring the data

Currently, it’s all about data monitoring and providing continual analysis to ensure that everything is in the best place it can be.

If you’re currently failing on any aspect of your core vitals, we recommend sorting it out before July as we’re preparing for bigger changes in the SERPs then.

Free tools we recommend to help

So Lighthouse is great for providing an overview into the current status of your core web vitals.

However, we also swear by the use of Google Search Console for in-depth analysis –  It gives you all quick access to all the  tools available and it tells you what elements you’re falling down on, so it’s hard to go wrong.  It’s a free Google tool.  Simply log in and go to the ‘Experience’ section.  Then navigate to ‘Core Web Vitals.’  Google then gives you a handy traffic light system to tell you what you need to do AND splits out the results into mobile and desktop.

What is the impact of failing core web vitals?

As of yet, we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but it will be on the lines scoring badly will result in ending up lower in the SERPS.

Google has stated there will be  ‘a new way of highlighting great experiences in Google Search” and that they aim to release visual indicators alongside some pages. This is truly will impact search as it could show users the sites performance before they click.

A core update only happens a few times a year, and considerable changes are made to Google’s ranking processes, targeting search overall and not just specific categories.

Even if you’re only failing on one section, you need to take a look at this because it can get you a big shake of the head from Google!

It’s a slow rollout, so it’s hard to know officially the full impact this update will have. However, we recommend using this time to sort things out before the second phase of this core update rollout in July.

How you can prepare for the second phase of the rollout in July.

Use this time now – with all the tools and resources you have at your disposal to make sure you’re aiming for the green light.  Focus on page optimization, website hosting and ensuring your site is mobile-friendly.

Remember that search intent and UX is at the center of everything. So make sure you’re checking your content too – you may pass your Core Web Vitals, but if you’re not serving the users intent or if you’re providing a bad user experience (such as poor navigation) you could find you may get bumped down in the SERPs! Our top tip is to optimize for users and then tidy up for bots.

Since May, SERP volatilitySERP volatility is a measure of the unpredictability of rankings within a given period of time. has yet to stabilize.