With Google’s announcement to greatly increase speed requirements in May of 2021, there was a rumble of concern amongst digital agencies, developers and advertisers. Meeting the aggressive requirements of Google’s Core Vitals program is no laughing matter, or easy to accomplish. We have addressed this requirement with a couple of key strategies, first a reminder about Google’s history of announcing major shifts and how they come around to enforcing them:
Google’s History
Google tends to talk big and deliver slowly on enforcing new requirements of web sites hoping to rank highly on their famous and giant search engine. The requirements are aggressive (your home page needs to load in less than 2 seconds, for example), but it’s a journey of technology and revamping to get there. They announce and gradually enforce the new requirements – so don’t panic if you need six more months to comply with the speed and other Core Vitals requirements.
Strategy 1
Upgrade your WordPress theme to a lighter, tighter theme. We chose Elementor. Being a WordPress shop, it was an easy choice. We avoid plugins by building some of the new sites manually. It’s tedious but worth it for SEO benefits.
Strategy 2
Educate yourself or your client as to what it will take to transition and properly inform them that it will not maintain the exact look and feel of their previous site. Reality is you can’t have a more limber, lighter site without some content lay out and design compromises. (Don’t shoot the messenger aka your agency rep or consultant, it’s not our requirement!) Promise about an 80% likeness and give your client choices on the changes. Communication and setting expectations is key here.
The good news is that under 10% of the sites out there comply with the new Core Vitals standards, so if you are still rewriting, reducing image size and coding your lighter site, no worries. It’s September and it may be winter before Google enforces the requirements. Look to your agency or consultant to stay up to date on the enforcements and how it will affect your organic and paid rankings on Google.
Have questions or need to talk about a new site? Send a message, let’s chat. Happy to help. #seo #strategy #google #digital #design #building #marketing