How Many Websites Are Failing in their Core Web Vitals Scores?

New research shows that around 50% of the top 100 websites on Google are still failing to deliver good page experiences on desktop through their Core Web Vitals scores. 

When it comes to mobile, 44% of them fall short of providing good online experiences. 

Among these top 100 websites, which are still failing to register good Core Web Vitals results, include retail giants Walmart and Target, online travel company TripAdvisor, and social media platforms like Pinterest and even Google’s very own Facebook and Instagram. 

Among the different industries, fashion brands and travel companies are performing the worst. 

The research comes from Core Web Vitals Monitor, an investigative unit of the Searchmetrics website. 

Quick Core Web Vitals recap 

Google’s website performance benchmarks aim to send strong signals to businesses to improve their website performance for online users. 

Core Web Vitals cover page loading times (measured through First Contentful Paint), a page’s interactivity (measured through First Input Delay), and its visual stability (Cumulative Layout Shift).

The top 100 websites 

The headline may actually be quite misleading if you take Core Web Vitals scores from the broader timeline. 

That’s because the proportion of the top 100 websites that are achieving good results is increasing. Back in January 2020, out of the top 100 websites, just 22% passed the Core Web Vitals test on desktop and 28% on mobile. 

Largest Contentful Paint 

When it comes to LCP, the average time was 2.43 seconds on desktop and 2.48 on mobile. These times sit just under Google’s benchmark of 2.5 seconds. 

Yet there still remains 36% of the top 100 websites that are failing to meet the minimum requirement for Largest Contentful Paint. 

Cumulative Layout Shift  

When it comes to CLS, just 24% of the top 100 websites failed to pass the minimum Google requirement of 0.1. The average score among them was just over that limit at 0.11. 

First Input Delay 

The data found that the majority of the top 100 websites massed the test when it came to FID. Yet they did admit that there were difficulties in collecting the relevant data in order to perform more meaningful analysis. 

“The Core Web Vitals update was Google’s way of encouraging websites to improve the quality of the online experience they deliver,” said Tom Wells, the VP of strategy at Searchmetrics. “But the data suggests that even some of the biggest brands have not completely solved their user experience challenges. 

“While they continue to rank highly in spite of this, it’s important to remember that the page experience has wider implications especially for eCommerce brands.”

There are also broader positive implications for good Core Web Vitals scores. “Delivering a user-friendly experience where pages load quickly, respond to input and in which dynamic content doesn’t jump around,” added Tom.  

“It’s going to help reduce eCommerce bounce rates and abandoned shopping carts, for example, while being good for conversions and return visits.”

Which industries are struggling most? 

The research highlights that the travel industry and the fashion industry find themselves in most difficulty. In general, they perform worse than other industries when it comes to Core Web Vitals. 

For fashion brands, just 24% of the top 100 websites passed Core Web Vitals on desktop and just 15% on mobile. 

When it came to the travel industry, for those in the top 100, the pass rate was 20% on desktop and 21% on mobile. 

Explaining these poor results, these industries heavily rely on images and videos to describe their products and services and provide greater context and depth for online consumers. 

At the other end of the spectrum, the healthcare industry and B2Bs have been performing the best, with pass rates of 59% and 60% respectively on desktop and 63% and 51% on mobile. 

“Fashion and travel were found to be the worst performing segments in terms of Core Web Vitals,” added Tom. “Part of the explanation is that websites in these sectors – and ecommerce generally – are typically image-heavy and frequently feature dynamic elements such as ad banners. 

“Healthcare websites tend to be more informational with less focus on dynamic content while B2B websites seem to strike a good balance between content delivery, user experience, and website performance.” 

PS: ArganoUV is one of the world’s leading Core Web Vitals specialists. Contact us to see how we can work together.