Core Web Vitals & Cookieless – redefining the future of advertising for publishers

As the world continues to become more digital savvy, there has been a significant rise in mobile customers. According to a recent statistics report by Statista, as of January 2021, there were 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide – 59.5 per cent of the global population. From this total, 92.6 per cent (4.32 billion) accessed the internet via mobile devices. Owing to the growing digital landscape and latest developments like deployment of Core Web Vitals and discontinuation of Third Party Cookies, this will impel publishers to adapt to the rapidly changing environment. Publishers will be affected by 2 main google changes: the addition of Core Web Vitals (as of last month) and the deletion of Third Party Cookies (coming in 2023).

These modern-day internet users are smart, savvy, time-starved, and are on the lookout for an enhanced user experience. A critical part of that experience is the ease with which they can find, access, review or buy products and services. Moreover, since the advent of regulations like GDPR and increased consumer awareness, it has brought light to the issue of user privacy. With GDPR leading the way, Safari announced the removal of internet cookies in 2017, Firefox in 2019 and Chrome is aiming to phase out third-party cookies by mid-2023.

The consumer demand for better user experience and enhanced user privacy is ushering us into a new digital era that will bring transparency and certainty around marketing measurement. Google is leading the way with Core Web Vitals to provide unified guidance using three metrics — loading, interactivity, and visual stability that are essential to delivering an improved user experience on the web. In this dynamic digital environment, publishers need to strategize to better adapt to these changes and engage with their audiences effectively. Taboola, a global leader in powering recommendations for the open web, is also preparing for the arrival of Core Web Vitals by optimizing the overall Taboola experience in line with its guidelines.

Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are metrics that will function as additional search ranking signals as a part of the page experience report. In the coming future, it will help publishers understand whether they’re providing their visitors with a good user experience. They are applied to desktop and mobile pages and are currently focused on loading, interactivity, and visual stability.

While Google has begun the gradual rollout since mid-June, the page experience update won’t play its full role until the end of August. To avoid SEO issues, publishers should start optimizing for the Core Web Vitals metrics first with an emphasis on mobile.

Cookieless World

With the changing dynamics of the digital advertising landscape, it has become imperative for businesses to embrace and evolve with changes in personalization solutions. A ‘Cookieless World’ defines the new strategy of marketing where marketers are less reliant on cookies that consist of bits of data/information containing any consumer’s personal identifiers.

We’ve all been living in a cookieless world for some time – 37% of the open web does not allow 3rd party cookies. Despite Google pushing back the deprecation of 3rd party cookies to 2023, publishers should still be repairing now by creating an identity strategy and by creating contextual insights.

Taboola’s core technology is future-proof due to its unique readership data and advanced contextual abilities.

Core Web Vitals and Cookieless puts users at the core and are enabling advertisers and publishers to understand and innovate in accordance with user’s needs. Publishers can take this as an opportunity to create more value for their consumers and truly fulfil the vision of a democratized open web.

About the author:

Bharat Arora, Country Manager, Taboola