In a world where a big percentage of the population is connected by mobile devices, a strong mobile presence is important to any business that wishes to be successful. First impressions matter. The first experience customers have when engaging with a brand's website is how long it takes to load, immediately followed by how easy it is to navigate.

This week, Google announced that a webpage’s experience will be a ranking factor next year in google search overall, as well as in the top stories feature on mobile. Google’s Core Web Vitals is an initiative to provide website owners with a unified set of metrics for building websites with user experience and performance in mind. These are metrics that Google considers critical for all web experiences and will help determine how companies measure a webpage’s responsiveness and visual stability. 

Google says Core Web Vitals are made up of three specific page speed and user interaction measurements: largest contentful paint (LCP), which measures perceived load speed and marks the point in the page load timeline when the page’s main content has likely loaded; first input delay (FID), which measures responsiveness and quantifies the experience users feel when trying to first interact with the page; and cumulative layout shift (CLS), which measures visual stability and quantifies the amount of unexpected layout shift of visible page content. These metrics will be more heavily weighted in Google’s page experience score in the new year, according to Google.  

Progressive Web Applications (PWAs) technology are an excellent example of Google attempting to make the web better. PWAs are designed to create a site or web app that is always accessible, regardless of device or network conditions. PWAs offer great ways to engage with your audience on a whole new level. It is becoming increasingly challenging to capture attention while people are browsing the internet and attract them to return to a website. PWAs are reliable and they load almost instantly. They respond quickly to user interactions with smooth animations and no jagged scrolling. They are also engaging - they feel like a natural app on any mobile device – which provides a more immersive user experience. 

More and more brands are investing in PWA technology, and for a good reason. They have built-in intelligence that captures user behaviors and preferences so the app can deliver a more personalized experience. It allows for a more frictionless user experience, and one of the most intriguing aspects of PWAs is that they are still accessible when the user is offline. In addition to the fast load times and high engagement it offers, PWAs also allow brands to send push notifications. 

Progressive Web Apps are the next generation of online interactivity and they bring the entire new user experience to the next level. Companies that adopt this technology early will stay ahead of the curve. Luckily, businesses still have time to prepare since Google’s Core Web Vitals will only roll out early next year. Early adopters will benefit greatly from these improvements to site usability prior to the new year. Those who optimize their website with Core Web Vitals in mind will have a competitive advantage both in terms of rank potential for their content and in conversion potential of their brand experience.