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FCC tells Google, Apple to remove TikTok

Written on June 30, 2022 at 4:59 am, by admin

U.S. Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr wants Apple and Google to ban TikTok from their app stores.

Why? The request is due to the social media app’s “pattern of surreptitious data practices,” according to Carr.

The request also comes after BuzzFeed News reported that U.S. data had been accessed from China.

TikTok had been adamant that any U.S. user data was kept in the U.S. But employees of TikTok have been able to access nonpublic data about TikTok users, according to leaked audio.

“As you know TikTok is an app that is available to millions of Americans through your app stores, and it collects vast troves of sensitive data about those US users. TikTok is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance — an organization that is beholden to the Communist Party of China and required by the Chinese law to comply with PRC’s surveillance demands,” Carr said in a letter addressed to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Apple CEO Tim Cook. “It is clear that TikTok poses an unacceptable national security risk due to its extensive data harvesting being combined with Beijing’s apparently unchecked access to that sensitive data.”

TikTok’s response. TikTok said it was moving all U.S. user data to Oracle servers, and they would delete all U.S. user data from their centers. 

TikTok caught in a national security loop? In 2020, President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning TikTok from the US, citing an investigation in 2019 over national security concerns. TikTok’s response: the order was issued without any due process.

Last year, President Biden revoked the ban and replaced the order with requirements that the Commerce Department review apps that may pose national security risks. 

TikTok, Apple, and Google have not yet responded to the request. 

Hypocrisy? Apparently, only U.S. companies can access and harvest boatloads of U.S. user data. But in all seriousness, the calls for a ban seem to be hypocritical at best. While we understand the need to limit national security threats from foreign adversaries, where do we draw the line? Will all foreign apps be required to keep their U.S. data in the country? 

Why we care. Brands have invested time and resources into creating a TikTok presence due to its explosive growth and enormous user base. However, TikTok as a discovery channel could go away should the government get its way. That makes this something that businesses, marketers and advertisers need to watch and strategize for possible changes.

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SimilarWeb & Rank Ranger talk acquisition, SEO challenges, opportunities

Written on June 29, 2022 at 1:55 am, by admin

Web analytics company SimilarWeb acquired rank tracking and monitoring tool Rank Ranger last month. Terms of the deal, announced on May 16, were not revealed. 

I recently had a chance to conduct a Q&A with SimilarWeb VP, GM Digital Marketing Solutions Baruch Toledano, as well as Rank Ranger CEO and founder Shay Harel. 

Toledano and Harel discussed what the acquisition means for both companies and their customers. They also discuss some of the biggest challenges and opportunities in SEO right now. Here are the highlights. 

SimilarWeb

The company, founded in 2007, has more than 1,000 employees. It also has more than 2,500 customers around the world, from startups to Fortune 500 companies, including Adidas, Adobe, Booking.com, DHL, Google, MGM and Pepsico.

According to Toledano, SimilarWeb’s mission is to:

• “Empower digital growth by providing decision-makers at all levels with 360° visibility into the digital world. We provide granular insights for any website, mobile app, industry and market globally.”

Why did SimilarWeb acquire RankRanger? Toledano said:

• “Rank Ranger provides SEO managers with search term tracking and monitoring. The fidelity of their data and ability to identify ongoing SERP changes has been instrumental to many organic search marketers. We believe that by combining SimilarWeb traffic analysis features and our datasets with ongoing rank performance, SEO managers will have a complete set of insights to design, measure, report and improve their marketing campaigns.  From planning to on-going monitoring to actionable insights to improving rank positioning.”

This acquisition provides many SimilarWeb customers with a comprehensive view into their business decisions, Toledano said.

• “For marketers, this means tying campaign strategy research activities with ongoing performance and improvements.  It means expanded topic ideation and tracking of content visibility on search. For other roles leveraging our solution, it provides additional reporting granularity, allowing for close monitoring of companies, products, investments, compliance and competitive insights. For example, consideration for potential and ongoing investments and their digital competitors’ presence; Brand and their affiliates’ compliance and monitoring for marketing the brand’s products; close inspection of trends as they emerge in search or other channels and many other use cases.”

What is Toledano’s favorite thing about Rank Ranger?

• “By far, the ranking granularity and all associated reports. Also, I like the fidelity they have for some of the unique engines like Google For Jobs that allows marketers to optimize across specialty search sites.”

This was the second acquisition for SimilarWeb within six months. In November, SimilarWeb acquired Embee Mobile, a mobile insights provider. That acquisition was meant to strengthen its mobile app intelligence offering.

Rank Ranger

The company, founded in 2009, has “hundreds” of customers (the company declined to be more specific), including H&M, Reckitt and Motley Fool.

All of Rank Ranger’s employees (more than a dozen developers and SEO specialists) now work out of SimilarWeb’s Tel Aviv office. All that has really changed is that Rank Ranger is now a SimilarWeb-owned company.

Harel views SimilarWeb as a complementary software to Rank Ranger, which allows for new opportunities to develop new SEO tools and analytics (e.g., traffic analysis, competitor intelligence, advanced reporting).

Here’s how Harel summed up what Rank Ranger does:

• “Rank Ranger is an all-in-one SEO and digital marketing tool designed to give businesses a strategic advantage through advanced reporting and analytics.”

For many startups, the goal is to get acquired. But that was never the goal for Rank Ranger, Harel said: 

• “We have worked closely with SimilarWeb over the past few years, and the synergies were a fit, and at some point, we saw a great opportunity.”

I asked Harel what he remembered most about the early days of the company. At the time, SEO was still in its early stages and there was a growing demand from marketers for tools that helped them perform daily and monthly tasks: 

• “It was very exciting to work with digital marketing agencies, understand their needs and build tools for our early clients that could help them with automation of their daily workflows. The SEO space has been evolving so quickly every year and we had to adapt and constantly innovate with new metrics and insights to keep up with the rapid pace of change.”

Harel also shared a couple of highlights from his time at Rank Ranger: 

• “On the technical side, our Insight Graph innovation has become a best-in-class reporting tool, having a blend of sources all-in-one marketing report. As for the business, the most exciting moment in the early days was when we closed Booking.com as a customer in a short timeframe. It was a challenging case of a custom solution where we excelled in our efforts to come up with a solution, which led to a new offering concept and many new businesses resulting from that use case.”

So what is Harel’s favorite thing about SimilarWeb?

• “Without a doubt, the keyword freshness and database is amazing and very different from “our” SEO world. Normal SEO tools are building keyword datasets based on Keyword Planner, Google Suggest/Related, Search Console, etc. These tools, by nature, have so much noise, it’s like an ocean that you need to invest so much time on research to get value. With SimilarWeb’s clickstream data, you get a clean dataset that is also up to date, that can be segmented from a very different angle. I believe that in the coming years, it will become the best common practice used by SEOs.”

The biggest SEO challenges and opportunities right now

According to Toldedano:

• “Aligning and telling this story in the design of every marketing campaign is their biggest challenge but also presents the biggest opportunity.  In addition, bringing other corporate roles outside of marketing to benefit from SEO insights, can drive better business decisions and promote its prominence in the organization.”

He added that challenges are opportunities where SEO can become a pivotal role within the marketing team:

• “SEOs can help align cross-channel marketing activities to deliver the most impact with other marketing roles combining paid and organic activities.  SEOs can empower CMOs with relevant insights when crafting mixed marketing strategies, particularly for the mid and long-term traffic and brand awareness goals.

Because SEO sits at the junction between creative, analytical and technical disciplines of marketing, it provides the best representation of the voice of customers and what it means to each of these disciplines, Toldedano said.  

• “To drive stronger alignment of marketing campaigns activities, the customer needs and expressions on organic search are the most genuine and long-lasting form of marketing that typically deliver the most impactful result.”  

Keeping up with Google is the biggest challenge, according to Harel. More specifically, changes to SERP features and the display of organic results.

• “These changes are creating new opportunities and invite more competition on keywords and obviously demotes monopolies on certain keyword spaces. For example, in 2015 there were 10 organic results and one Featured Snippet = a total of 11 domains competing. Today you have 10 organic results, a block of related questions, a featured snippet and new boxes that can take the number of domains to 20 and more! That’s a lot of competition on a single keyword.”

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Webinar: Grow revenue streams through web accessibility and compliance

Written on June 29, 2022 at 1:55 am, by admin

1 out of 4 people in the U.S. lives with some type of disability. Because consumers are online now more than in previous years, your clients’ websites must be accessible to everyone.

It’s not merely a matter of being compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It’s also good business—because web accessibility can deliver better results and enhance search engine optimization.

Join a panel of agency, compliance and disability leaders to hear more about how web accessibility can work for your agency and your clients.

Register today for “Agencies: Grow Revenue Streams Through Web Accessibility & Compliance,” presented by accessiBe.

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Facebook testing new sidebar, channels for groups

Written on June 29, 2022 at 1:55 am, by admin

Facebook is testing a new sidebar that helps users find groups quicker and easier. The sidebar lists your groups and their latest activity like posts or chats. You can also pin your favorite groups so you can access them quicker, and even create your own.

The case for groups. Facebook groups aren’t new. Groups are used to get users with similar interests, and hobbies together, in a place where they can collaborate, communicate, sell, or meet in person. This reorganization doesn’t change the functionality of groups or how they work, but reorganizes them within the Facebook platform and offers a few new features.

How groups are organized. In the new sidebar, you’ll be able to easily see a menu that takes you to links for events, shops, chats, or other channels within the group. 

Within their groups, admins can create individual channels to allow smaller, more casual interactions. This is meant to drive deeper discussions and organize the group around sub-topics of interests and demographics. 

New group features

Community chat. Message and collaborate with other group members in private, smaller channels based on a sub-topic or interest.

Community audio. This allows admins and members to hold audio conversations in real-time.

Community feed. Just like with a normal Facebook feed, the community feeds allow you to browse activity within your selected channel. 

Launch date TBD. There isn’t any information on when these new features will be launched to the public fully. But you can read the announcement here.

Why we care. Businesses with a large Facebook presence can take advantage of these new features and create groups around their product or service. There’s no guarantee they’ll result in any measurable success, but creating a community around their brand may be a way to keep people engaged.  

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Yoast SEO Premium now offers IndexNow

Written on June 29, 2022 at 1:54 am, by admin

Yoast SEO, one of the more popular SEO plugins for WordPress, has finally adopted IndexNow, the Microsoft backed protocol to submit content to search engines. This is available in the premium version of Yoast SEO version 19.2, the company announced.

What is IndexNow. IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about latest content changes on their website. IndexNow is a simple ping protocol so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted, allowing search engines to quickly reflect this change in their search results. The co-sharing of IndexNow went fully live in January 2022.

Integrations. Why Microsoft built its own plugin for WordPress sites to use IndexNow, Yoast decided to build it in to its premium plugin. Why did Yoast add it now? “The latest change to the protocol is the second significant development that made us change our minds about IndexNow. The IndexNow team changed the endpoint of the API from pinging each individual-supported search engine to a single API managed by the protocol. This means that sites only have to ping a single site, making the process much more efficient. All of this fits into our view of a sustainable crawling and indexing solution, so now is the time to implement IndexNow with a new integration in Yoast SEO,” the company explained.

What is IndexNow. IndexNow provides a method for websites owners to instantly inform search engines about latest content changes on their website. IndexNow is a simple ping protocol so that search engines know that a URL and its content has been added, updated, or deleted, allowing search engines to quickly reflect this change in their search results.

Google support? Nope, not yet. Google last year said it was testing IndexNow but since then has not said much about IndexNow. There have been some rumors that Google would not adopt this protocol but as we have seen in the search space, things change fast and often.

Why we care. Like we said before, instant indexing is an SEO’s dream when it comes to giving search engines the most updated content on a site. The protocol is very simple and it requires very little developer effort to add this to your site, so it makes sense to implement this if you care about speedy indexing.

Now, if you have WordPress and use Yoast SEO premium, you can easily active IndexNow for your site.

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TikTok introduces Attribution Manager with flexible windows

Written on June 27, 2022 at 10:50 pm, by admin

To provide more flexibility in advertisers’ goals, strategies, and conversion journeys, TikTok is introducing a flexible Attribution Manager. The new feature enables users to set custom attribution windows on the TikTok Ads Manager. 

Why the change. TikTok realizes that every advertiser is different in regard to the actions their target market takes after clicking an ad. If the goal is brand awareness, a click or like is a sufficient objective. However, if the advertiser is selling a service or high-ticket item, the conversion journey looks different and can often take longer. 

New options. The original and default attribution windows are set to 7-day click and 1-day view. This means that potential customers have 1 day to convert after an ad is viewed, or 7 days after the ad is clicked. 

The new options available for advertisers are: 

• Click-through (CTA): 1, 7, 14, 28 day
• View-through (VTA): off, 1 and 7 day

Best practices. To get the most out of the new attribution windows, you’ll need to consider who your customer is, what your conversion goal is, and how long they take to perform the primary action. 

For retail brands running a seasonal campaign or flash sale, a 7-day click or 1-day view is sufficient. However, for a high-ticket item, or a product that takes more consideration such as purchasing insurance or comparing laptop models, a longer attribution model is suggested. 

Who gets it. The TikTok Attribution Manager is available to advertisers who run campaigns using the TikTok Pixel or Events API. 

What TikTok has to say. You can read the announcement on the TikTok blog here.

Why we care. This is a necessary update from TikTok, as most ad platforms have flexible attribution windows already. Advertisers are likely familiar with how they work, but if you use TikTok ads, be sure you have the pixel installed so you can track your conversions and take advantage of this new update. 

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Google Marketing Live 2022: Reactions from the experts

Written on June 27, 2022 at 10:50 pm, by admin

At this year’s SMX Advanced Julie Bacchini, President of Neptune Moon, moderated a roundtable discussion with three other experts on the topic of the recent Google Marketing Live 2022.

Included in the panel were:

• Cory Henke, CEO / Founder of Variable Media
• Jyll Saskin Gales, Marketing Consultant at Jyll.ca
• Michael Henderson, VP Performance Marketing of Paytient

GML2022: Thoughts & reactions from the panel

One of the underlying thoughts from the panel was this GML2022 was a very different Google Marketing Live event than past shows.

“So this year’s Google Marketing Live was all about commerce,” Gales said. “Commerce was the star of the show and I don’t know that I was expecting that.”

Bacchini highlighted the point that this year there was a lot of talk about auto-generated creative and speculates that we will see more of this in the future.

“In the keynote, they said ‘Let’s build the future of marketing together’ and then every mention of the future of marketing was AI and automation,” Henderson said. “It felt a little over the top.”

The consensus was also that folks were expecting more about some of the newer campaign types like Performance Max, but real news on the topic never materialized.

All agreed that the lack of talk around keywords and bidding was surprising, and unique, for a Google Marketing Live event.

Reaction to Amazon & Tiktok

The panel thought that the event felt more “reactive” to Amazon and TikTok with announcements aimed at taking market share from the ecommerce and social media giants.

Everyone on the panel also agreed that this year’s event was the most ecommerce heavy event to date.

Gales was most excited about the new vision for the search experience. She said:

• “We always think of search as more bottom of funnel, demand capture with people looking for exactly what they want and finding a solution … and instead this new vision informed by shopping features, by video features was really about discovery and engagement.”

She also went on to state that this vision may be a longer-term play and that not all of the plan will come to fruition immediately.

“In previous Google Marketing Lives I was always looking for more video and in this year’s Google Marketing Live video had its place,” Henke said.

Henke also praised the efforts of Google in competing with the likes of TikTok and Instagram with the creator funds and full adoption of vertical video on Google’s biggest stage.

There were also questions about how video will actually fit together with the new story ad types.

Other positives from Google Marketing Live

Some additional GML2022 elements that the panel liked were:

• Shareable asset library. Henderson noted that he wasn’t expecting the new shareable asset library, but that he was delighted at the prospect of it.
• Google tag. The panel had high hopes for the new Google tag that was announced but are still hungry for more information.
• Connected TVs. Henke made an astute point that you can currently target TV-only campaigns, but with new partners like Hulu this is yet another way to “step on more turf” of competitors.
• Geo-experiments. Henerson was excited to test the geo-experiments feature around conversion lift.
• Discovery campaigns. The panel was excited about the ability to bring video into discovery campaigns and on the continued buildout of that campaign type.

Potential concerns from Google Marketing Live

One main element of concern for the panel was the risk posed by uploading user data.

Bacchini made it clear that while Google wants advertisers and agencies to upload first-party data, there may be a risk associated with that, which falls directly to the advertiser/agency.

She made a plea to consult with your legal team before acting on some of the first-party data uploads.

Bottom line

Whether you like or dislike the changes announced at this year’s Google Marketing Live, they will be coming to your accounts soon. This roundtable gives a fair look at how four ads experts are planning for these changes.

Watch the full SMX Advanced roundtable

You can view the full discussion at no cost until Aug. 31, along with all of the other sessions from this year’s SMX Advanced.

Not registered for SMX Advanced? Get your free pass here.

Already registered for SMX Advanced? Log in here.

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30+ agencies form new group to support reproductive rights

Written on June 27, 2022 at 10:50 pm, by admin

A new group – Agencies for Reproductive Rights (ARR) – has been formed by more than 30 search organizations. 

The group’s purpose. It is to provide abortion travel benefits for team members following the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. According to the ARR’s website:

• “Each agency … has agreed to cover travel expenses for employees seeking an abortion to the nearest state where legal and safe care is available.”

As Michael King, founder & CEO of iPullRank, put it on Twitter, “if you work at @iPullRankAgency and live in a state that doesn’t support a woman’s right, whatever plane, train or automobile you need to take is on us.”

There are still many details to work out, as the group was only formed over the weekend and announced today. What is for sure is that the group is free to join, and there is a form on the ARR site to do so.

Why the group formed. “I woke up Friday still reeling from the fact that my wife, Jill, and my two daughters, were just told by their government that they were basically second-class citizens and that the government had more say over what they could do with their own bodies than they did,” according to Andrew Shotland, CEO of Local SEO Guide.

Also, right now, women need support and allies, not judgment, said Tess Voecks, director of project management at Local SEO Guide.

“I’m very thankful to have a supportive and understanding employer who understands that reproductive healthcare and medical needs are a personal choice to be made by a woman and that restricting that right by law and making it punishable by law is both dangerous and wrong,” Voecks said.

She also she is thankful that “we are all working together to initiate and organize the formation of a community of support for our industry. We won’t be silenced!”

Women need to feel empowered to make decisions about their bodies and lives for any and all reasons, including reproductive care, Voecks said.

“It’s terrifying to have this right stripped away from us,” she said. “While some of us live in states that still allow legal abortions, many of us do not, and some of us still live very far from a facility that would provide us with the medical care that we want or need.

“That said, travel and time away from work should never be a concern to get the healthcare we want or need. We want our employees to feel supported and empowered to time away from work, afford travel expenses and have the mental and medical care for the reproductive care they need,” Voecks added.

The companies. These companies have joined ARR so far:

1. Altura Interactive
2. Amsive Digital
3. Argent Media
4. Beyond SEO
5. BKW Partners / BKW Health
6. Blind Five Year Old
7. Boldist
8. Boylan Point
9. Captivate
10. The Digital Marketers Organization
11. Duda
12. EPL Digital/Attorney Sync
13. The Gray Dot Company
14. Growth Plays
15. Gulo Solutions
16. Impressive Digital
17. Intellifluence
18. iPullRank
19. Juris Digital
20. LocalMN Interactive
21. Local SEO Guide
22. Local Splash
23. Location3
24. Marketing Mojo
25. OpenMoves
26. Anthony Palomerez
27. Pasterneck Marketing
28. Position 2
29. Rickety Roo
30. Search Labs
31. Webfor

Why we care. Whether you are pro-abortion or anti-abortion, the Supreme Court’s decision is only starting to be felt in our industry. The ripple effects will likely continue for the foreseeable future. As Google put it in a memo to its employees: “this ruling will have [an impact] on people’s health, lives, and careers.”

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What to do if you’re negatively impacted by a major algorithm update

Written on June 27, 2022 at 10:50 pm, by admin

“Not all Google updates are equal,” said Glenn Gabe, SEO consultant at G-Squared Interactive, in his presentation at SMX Advanced. “Google pushes thousands of changes per year, but some are small and some are large.”

Whenever a new Google algorithm update is announced, SEOs often spend a lot of money, time, and resources optimizing their sites. And while this can be a good thing, as it helps improve these properties, it can also distract marketers from higher priority tasks when the update is overhyped.

For example, many sites worked heavily on improving Core Web Vitals even though the page experience signal is lightweight (more of a tiebreaker). Gabe showed examples of sites that saw no movement at all when their CWV scores were “poor” and “good”.

To properly address these updates — and discern what impact they will have — Gabe offered SEOs a few tips that can help them get to the heart of the issue.

Don’t jump to conclusions

Any major drop in rankings/visibility following a Google update will undoubtedly spur many SEOs to action. But, to avoid wasting too much of your valuable time and resources, Gabe recommended getting all the facts in place before jumping to conclusions.

“Avoid the knee-jerk reaction when rankings drop,” he said. “You might need to [make changes], or you might not need to. A drop during a major algorithm update could be due to relevancy adjustments, intent shifts, or overall site quality problems.”

“All of these are very different, so don’t just charge ahead,” he added.

Gabe suggests marketers create a delta report to analyze these changes. This type of report will detail changes in your top landing pages and queries, allowing you to pinpoint those that have dropped during significant algorithm updates. It can also reveal the root cause of the drops and help teams determine the next steps.

“This is quick, easy, and packed with punch,” he said. “It can reveal a lot of information.”

Determine if there are site quality issues

Sometimes visibility changes following a Google update stem from a quality issue with your site, rather than a change in the algorithm or new competitors.

“If you determine this is the case, there’s good and bad news,” Gabe said. “You can address those problems and see recovery eventually, but it takes significant work over the long term. You will typically not recover quickly — it’s usually months of hard work.”

Gabe said that when addressing these quality issues, site owners should analyze their sites through the lens of broad core algorithm updates, then work to improve content quality and user experience. This means reviewing potential technical SEO problems that could be affecting site quality as well.

“As Google’s John Mueller explained, when you think about quality, it’s not just about content,” said Gabe. “It’s not just about the text on a page, so don’t just focus on what people are reading.”

Pay attention to E-A-T

“E-A-T, or expertise, authoritativeness, and trust, is super-important,” said Gabe. “You could think of Google’s algorithm like a human who’s asking if the [site] creator has expertise on a topic. You have to look at your content objectively.”

Because E-A-T isn’t a score or scale, it’s not always easy determining how well your site embodies its principles. Yet Google’s documentation has highlighted its importance — especially when future-proofing sites for algorithm updates. So, SEOs should ensure they’re adhering to its standard.

When it comes to improving E-A-T after a ranking drop, many SEOs focus on improving content quality and thoroughness, which are incredibly important. But, as Gabe noted, authoritativeness is also heavily influenced by links and mentions from authoritative sites.

“If you do the right things content-wise and build trust with your audience, links and mentions from well-known sites could help from an E-A-T standpoint,” he said. “It’s not easy to fix this problem if you don’t have a lot of authority, but you can work at it over time.”

“It’s really important to identify, plan and execute changes to improve the site overall,” he added.

Watch Glenn Gabe’s full SMX Advanced presentation

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Core Web Vitals scores improving for top-ranked sites

Written on June 24, 2022 at 1:43 pm, by admin

Organizations have been investing resources into improving their Core Web Vitals scores, according to new research. 

Enterprise SEO platform BrightEdge has compared the top rankings for 500 keywords, from this year to last, in four markets: education, B2B technology, finance and retail. 

Core Web Vitals, one year later. It’s been just over a year since Google’s page experience update started rolling out June 15, 2021. It was completed Sept. 2. 

The three Core Web Vitals website performance metrics were a subset of the overall Page Experience Update. Those metrics are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – loading, target 2.5 seconds.
• First Input Delay (FID) – interactivity, target 100 milliseconds. (Note: Google announced in May that it might replace FID with a new metric called INP – Interaction to Next Paint).
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – visual stability, target 0.1.

Page experiences are improving. Here’s the data from BrightEdge:

Source: BrightEdge

On average:

• Retail scores improved by 58%. BrightEdge noted that retail giants have made significant strides in improving poor experiences – last year, top-ranked retail sites failed to meet Core Web Vitals metrics.
• B2B tech scores improved by 30%. Publishers and resources from SaaS platforms have made good gains.
• Education scores improved by 28%. More .gov sites are ranking and have good Core Web Vitals scores.
• Finance scores improved by 27%. This sector was best prepared last year and perhaps due to that saw the least amount of performance gains.

Why we care. SEOs weren’t sold on Core Web Vitals. However, this research shows that companies have been taking Core Web Vitals seriously. It is impossible to point to Core Web Vitals as the sole reason for any ranking boosts or declines. But smart SEO requires driving incremental gains. And every possible positive signal you can give Google (such as good Core Web Vitals scores) is a potential way to positively influence your ranking and visibility.

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