Reddit might not be the first platform you think of when talking about SEO or Core Web Vitals. However, this exact same question got asked on Reddit and led to a surprising reply.
No one less then John Mueller himself replied to the question being asked on Reddit 4 days ago: "Anyone else not buying Core Web Vitals?".
The additional remark was as following:
I just find it hard to believe that this actually becomes a greater part of the ranking algo. Has anyone seen dramatic gains or decreases based on it so far?
Core Web Vitals is more than a tie-breaker
Based on John Mueller's reply, I think we can summarize Core Web Vitals as following:
It is a ranking factor, and it's more than a tie-breaker, but it also doesn't replace relevance.
John also elaborated on his reply by describing what most of us already knew (I hope): it's a combination of factors and you might notice the impact more on certain sites and less on others.
And this actually is part of your job when being an SEO specialist: take all of the possible optimizations and figure out which ones are worth spending time on. Next to any SEO tools it takes experience to find the items that make sense to optimize.
Core Web Vitals is more than a ranking factor
I might as well quote John Mueller's reply as I couldn't state it any better, but you could then just read his exact reply over at Reddit.
But to summarize, Core Web Vitals:
- is more than a random ranking factor;
- it also affects your site's usability after;
- traffic is not going to be as useful as when you have a higher conversion rate
This means that Core Web Vitals is a great way of recognizing and quantifying common user annoyances. Any SEO benefits should be considered an extra bonus next to conversion benefits in the first place.
