Google introduced a new set of experimental Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) metrics that measure how advertising affects real-world user experience. The purpose of the new metric is to provide data to publishers and advertisers but of course SEOs and site owners may reasonably consider how this may play out as a ranking-related metric at some point in the future.
Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX)
The Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) is a Chrome dataset of actual user browser experiences, often referred to as Field Data. This is where the field data in Google’s PageSpeed Insights Core Web Vitals data comes from.
The data is collected from Chrome users who have opted in to having their browsing experience anonymously measured. The data consists of data from Chrome users on Android, ChromeOS, Linux, MacOS, and Windows. Other platforms (like Chrome on iOS)are excluded.
Google’s Four Ad Experience Metrics
The Ad Experience metrics consist of four data points:
- Ad Count
- Ad Density
- Ad Weight: CPU
- Ad Weight: Network
Chrome’s announcement explains what each metric is measuring:
“Ad Count
Counts the visible ads on a page, measuring the average number of distinct ad frames visible in the viewport as the user scrolls.Ad Density
Measures the visual footprint of ads within the viewport throughout a session as the user scrolls, defined as the average fraction of the visible viewport area occupied by ad frames.Ad Weight: CPU
Measures the cumulative computational load caused by loading and running ad scripts and assets.Ad Weight: Network
Measures the cumulative network traffic load caused by loading and running ad scripts and assets.”
Availability
Chrome is making the data available through the CrUX API, CrUX History API, and Chrome DevTools’ Ad panel. The announcement also explains that they will be adding it to the CrUX BigQuery dataset at some time in the future, which would enable larger-scale analysis.
Featured Image by Shutterstock/Mongta Studio
