Google Clarifies Role of Core Web Vitals and On-Page Experience in Search Ranking
Google recently made important clarifications regarding Core Web Vitals and other page experience signals in search rankings. According to the updated documentation, Core Web Vitals are actually used by Google’s ranking systems. In addition, Google recommends achieving good Core Web Vitals scores to promote good site positioning and ensure an excellent user experience. However, performing well in Search Console’s Core Web Vitals reports or through third-party tools does not guarantee a top ranking in search results. Indeed, a quality experience goes beyond just Core Web Vitals scores. These are therefore primarily intended to promote the improvement of the site as a whole for users, and not to serve solely as an SEO lever.
Other aspects of the on-page experience do not directly contribute to improving a site’s ranking in search results, according to Google. However, improving the overall on-page experience can make a site more satisfying to users, consistent with the goals of Google’s ranking systems. So, even if these aspects do not directly influence the ranking, they remain decisive in providing a quality user experience.
Google’s recent official documentation update follows a series of mixed messages surrounding the role of Core Web Vitals and on-page experience as ranking factors. Google has clarified these points to clear up any misunderstanding, however, emphasizing that Core Web Vitals should not be the sole focus of SEO efforts. Indeed, Google’s John Mueller pointed out on LinkedIn that obtaining a perfect score for Core Web Vitals is not necessarily the best investment in terms of time to improve a site’s SEO.
In addition to Core Web Vitals, Google also made a small change to its documentation regarding pagination, incremental page loading and their impact on search. The mention that on-page experience was a ranking signal for Google Search has been removed, indicating that these elements are no longer officially ranking signals.
