The State of the Web

Google’s new Core Web Vitals (CWV) section on their Searchmetrics website has produced data that says many of the top 100 websites do not meet all three of the thresholds for good website performance and usability that the CWV measures. Webpages like Walmart.com, Instagram.com and TripAdvisor.com are all among the list. There are 8 industry segments for the sites to fall into, with fashion and travel sites being the worst performing categories overall.

Of the top 100 most visible fashion retailers, just 24% of their websites pass the CWV on desktop and that number gets much worse on mobile, dropping to a measly 16%. As for travel sites, their stats are just as disappointing at 20% and 21% for desktop and mobile respectively.

Healthcare sites, perhaps due to their focus on written content, have scored very well with the top sites getting 59% on desktop and a very respectable 63% on mobile.

Social media companies often focus on their apps, rather than their websites, so they tend to be slower and have performed poorly in the Core Web Vitals.

Overall, it feels like much of internet is still lagging behind and ignoring, perhaps the most part of a website, user experience. With many of the worst offenders being some of the biggest and most popular sites, it doesn’t seem likely to change for a while yet.