The desktop rollout of Core Web Vitals

The desktop landing of Core Web Vitals (CWVs) shouldn’t be a surprise. Two years on from Google’s Page Experience announcement, publishers have had plenty of notice about the new metrics. Particularly as CWVs are already factors for search rankings on mobile. Nevertheless, with the desktop rollout now complete, it’s likely many publishers are hurrying to get their sites in order. But why the last-minute rush? Probably because publishers have, rightly, been focused on mobile optimization in recent months, fearing loss of traffic and revenue after the mobile rollout in 2021. But with desktop accounting for just under half of global web traffic, failing to cater for this considerable portion of users could leave site owners at risk of losing audience favor and revenue, as well as their search ranking. For those who feel underprepared, it’s critical to hit the accelerator on Core Web Vitals optimization – ensuring compliance with first input delay (FID), largest contentful paint (LCP), and cumulative layout shift (CLS) to maintain strong site performance across both mobile and desktop.

New rollout, same rules, The desktop activation, which mirrors the initial mobile rollout, signals phase two in Google’s mission to put users at the heart of digital media. This is done, namely, by encouraging publishers to improve core areas of online experience. As with mobile, search algorithms will evaluate desktop site performance against set thresholds for loading speed, stability, and responsiveness. This is in addition to considering other page experience signals such as HTTPS security, time to total interactivity, and absence of interstitials. But data from Chrome’s User Experience Report shows that some publishers are already struggling with mobile optimisation, with global compliance averages for mobile standing at 34% for all sites (compared to 46% for desktop). And although they might assume desktop’s faster connections and loading speeds will make it easier to optimise against CWVs than for mobile, that doesn’t seem to necessarily be the case. Figures reveal that only 60% of the top 1,000 media sites globally currently meet the requirements for CLS on desktop. This means desktop sites are experiencing more unexpected layout shifts on pages than they ideally should be – an issue that frequently leads to accidental clicks from users and, as a result, penalties from Google. With mobile sites scoring higher on this metric (69%), it’s clear publishers have a lot of work to do on desktop site performance, despite its superior speed. So what can publishers do to boost their compliance scores – along with the user experience – across mobile and desktop environments?

Publishers’ new to-do list, While optimisation will require significant adjustment, there are smart tactics publishers can harness to maximise the chances of reaching key benchmarks and staying on track. In particular, this will entail streamlining site assets and mechanics, while also implementing tech that constantly monitors site performance and identifies problem areas across different environments.