Martin Splitt Discusses The Consequences Of Sculpting Core Web Vitals Scores

In a JavaScript SEO Office Hours video, Google’s Martin Splitt discussed matters related to Core Web Vitals. In particular, he talked about the practice of preventing users with slow Internet from accessing websites to get better scores. Most SEOs conduct a website SEO audit first to see which parts of a website they need to improve. In this case, visitors with slow Internet can change the ranking factors that could affect an SEO audit.

Many SEOs wonder if they can improve their Core Web Vitals score by blocking such website visitors. Google includes these slow metrics into the final score of a website audit, and some believe that it’s better to simply remove them from the calculation entirely.

The Core Web Vitals are set to become crucial ranking factors this year. This set of page experience metrics will be calculated into final scores, which have two types: Field Metrics and Lab Measurements.

Field Metrics refer to actual scores that come from visitors to a website. Its purpose is to give SEOs real-world feedback.

On the other hand, Lab Measurements are scores derived from a simulated visit via various Google tools. Lab measurements are designed to give SEOs and publishers a way to test the performance of a website to determine areas of improvement.

Between the two, Google uses Field Metrics more than Lab Measurements to generate Core Web Vitals scores for ranking purposes.

Many SEOs today are concerned about their Core Web Vitals scores dropping, so during a JavaScript SEO Office Hours video, someone took the time to ask Splitt about the matter.

The person asked about the idea of Google using real-world field data and the possibility of a lower Core Web Vitals score if people with slow Internet connection visit the site.

Some countries have a slower Internet connection than others, so the person who asked the question wanted to prohibit these visitors from their website to somehow “sculpt” better results for Web Vitals scores during the website SEO audit. Essentially, only visitors with a faster Internet connection can enter the website and contribute to the final scores.

Splitt replied that it could be a risky idea for two reasons. First, visitors with a slower Internet connection will usually use a proxy or a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which slows the speed even more, making things futile.

Second, focusing on a single ranking factor might negatively affect bigger ranking factors. Core Web Vitals is just one ranking factor out of a hundred. Moreover, he said that speed is not the only quality signal there is.

Splitt also mentioned that blocking visitors from countries that have slower speed is a more complex setup. Usually, a complex website will only add more problems. For instance, when a webmaster or an SEO adds layer upon layer of complexity, there will always come a time where one layer will interfere with another layer, causing for the site to stop working altogether.

The best thing that businesses and webmasters should do is to keep their websites as simple as possible to prevent unexpected or unintended SEO issues from happening. The more complex a website becomes, the more the chances that something will really go wrong.

Core Web Vitals are crucial to consider whether they are a ranking factor or not. However, sculpting the final scores by any means will only backfire, whether it’s to introduce another layer of complexity or to manipulate the user behaviour – all these will give the website worse scores overall.

Here at Position1SEO, we care about your website’s Core Web Vitals scores. There are a lot of factors that could affect your final scores, and it is the job of a professional SEO agency to know which ranking factors to focus on. Our team of SEO experts looks at the bigger picture instead of just being laser-focused on one aspect of SEO.

Moreover, we are compliant with the latest Google algorithms, ensuring the best and highest-quality SEO service for clients from different niches – whatever industry you may operate in.

If you want a free SEO audit that determines areas of improvement on your website, you may call us via 0141 846 0114 or email office@position1seo.co.uk.