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As you know, Google introduced Core Web Vitals in the end of April 2021 and as of May, the CWV became a ranking factor for Google.

Our website was one of those who hit it hard. We lost like 50-70% of our organic traffic in May. The site wasn't optimized at all. So, we started optimizing the scripts. And we checked every page on PageSpeed Insights. And the lab data were great mostly.

After a few weeks, most of our pages got a "pass" from PSI. But still two of our most important pages fail (home page and our product page).

I have read several pages, the documentation regarding CWV, blogs, etc. They say the field data could be different than lab data because they are collected from CrUx in the time span of last 28 days.

But what doesn't make sense to me is that when I switch the language to German for example, URL gets an additional /de and that URL in PSI passes the criteria! While the scripts are identical, just the content is the German translation of the home page.

How come the German language of the home page passes the criteria, while the English language fails? I've done all kinds of optimization I could to the site, and it's pretty much fast now. It doesn't shift layout while loading on mobile. And we have waited for almost two months.

Do you have any idea why the home page and our product page won't get a pass on PSI?

I have clicked on "Validate Fix" on Search Console twice so far. Does it have anything to do with this issue?

Is it possible that because Germany has a faster Internet connection, its users load the site faster?

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  • If anything I would expect German to be worse than English. In my experience localizing web pages German has the most layout problems because of the long length of some German words. Usually it is the German version where something doesn't fit and pushes the layout wider compared to every other language. In your case maybe the layout is worse when words are shorter?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Jul 2, 2021 at 17:36
  • I'm pretty sure German text doesn't shift layout. Our CLS is good for both languages. It's mainly FCP/LCP which is worse for English home page.
    – Amin Darvand
    Commented Jul 2, 2021 at 19:45
  • It's hard to give meaningful answers to this without details. You seem convinced the issue is external, but haven't provided anything to substantiate it. On which metrics is EN failing, what are the scores, what exactly does PSI report and how does it differ between EN and DE localisations, are you referring to CrUX results or synthetic tests from Lighthouse, etc.
    – GDVS
    Commented Jul 6, 2021 at 8:51

1 Answer 1

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Is Difference Between German and English Versions Possible?

Yes, it is possible. There can be several reasons. For example, most visitors from the US may use certain devices, browsers, etc., that German visitors may use sparingly. Server location, DNS speed, etc., may play a part. You have to segment the visitors from the US and Germany and profile them to start analyzing.

Note:

Google's core web vitals update didn't happen in May. The page experience update started on June 16 (https://twitter.com/googlesearchc/status/1404886100087246848) and is in progress. The update is expected to be completed by August.

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    In addition to CWV not going live in May, CWV is also a very minor ranking factor and is unlikely to have caused huge ranking changes for any site. It really sounds like the ranking problem is really due to something else.
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Jul 2, 2021 at 17:45
  • It's true that it's not a major ranking factor, but that's the only reason we lost a huge amount of traffic. We didn't change anything. I checked and only our mobile traffic was affected. Desktop traffic didn't change. It has to be due to the page experience update.
    – Amin Darvand
    Commented Jul 2, 2021 at 19:49
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    @AminDarvand Nothing you've said would imply that the only explanation is page experience. For one thing, as pointed out above, the dates are misaligned by weeks. I strongly suggest improving your original question by providing detail.
    – GDVS
    Commented Jul 6, 2021 at 8:56
  • @GDVS Thanks for the reply and sorry for late response. Are you interested in having a look at our website, dear Glynn? If yes, would you mind telling me how to contact you?
    – Amin Darvand
    Commented Jul 14, 2021 at 6:06

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