Improving Page Speed: A Guide to Core Web Vitals

Improving Page Speed: A Guide to Core Web Vitals

An Introduction to Core Web Vitals

If you’re looking to improve your website’s user experience and SEO rankings, you need to pay attention to your Core Web Vitals. These metrics measure how quickly your website loads and responds to user interactions, and how stable your layout is during page load. The three Core Web Vitals that Google recommends focusing on are:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): These measure how long it takes for the main content on a webpage to appear to users. Ideally, you want an LCP core web vitals of less than 2.5 seconds, as this ensures that users can see and interact with your content as quickly as possible.
• First Input Delay (FID): This measures your website’s response time when a user interacts with the page for the first time. This includes clicks on links, taps on buttons, and custom JavaScript actions. A good FID core web vitals score is less than 100 milliseconds, which ensures that users can interact with your website smoothly and quickly.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This measures how much-unexpected movement occurs in the layout of your webpage during page load. This can be caused by images or other elements that take longer to load than the rest of the page and can disrupt users’ ability to read and interact with your content. Google recommends a CLS core web vitals score of 0.1 or less.

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Tools for Measuring Core Web Vitals

Google’s Core Web Vitals are crucial for improving your website’s user experience and SEO ranking. Google has incorporated these metrics into several of its top tools for developers and webmasters, starting with the Chrome User Experience Report.

This report collects real data from users as they browse the web, then shares it with developers through tools like PageSpeed Insights and Google Search Console. PageSpeed Insights analyses the performance of your webpage and makes suggestions on how to increase its speed. It reviews all three Core Web Vitals on both mobile and desktop browsers.

Google Search Console is another tool that utilizes the data from the Chrome User Experience Report to show you issues throughout your website. You will find Core Web Vitals for your web pages inside Google Search Console.

If you want to see Core Web Vitals while you browse the web or as you make edits to your web pages, the Chrome Web Vitals Extension is the perfect tool for you. The extension can review your competitors’ current scores as well. It uses the web-vitals library along with field data from the Chrome User Experience Report.

Each of these tools allows you to view the LCP, FID, and CLS for your website. Keep in mind that websites with too little traffic may be missing some metrics, most notably inside Google Search Console.

Improving your Core Web Vitals can lead to significant benefits for your website. By using these tools, you can identify areas for improvement and take steps to increase your website’s performance. Focus on optimizing your website’s speed and user experience, and you’ll be on your way to achieving higher SEO rankings and more satisfied visitors.

The Importance of Core Web Vitals for Your Website

Google has integrated Core Web Vitals into its search algorithm, and the complete rollout of the page experience update was expected to be completed by August 2021. As a result, improving your LCP, FID, and CLS can have a significant impact on your users and your rankings on mobile search results pages.

An increase in traffic can result from just one higher position on the first page of search results, emphasizing the importance of core web vitals for SEO. Positive word-of-mouth referrals, reviews and repeated business can also result from an improved user experience.

On the other hand, providing a slow-loading website can lead to an unfavourable increase in bounce rate, which can negatively affect your website’s SEO. For instance, a web page that takes one to five seconds to load increases the bounce rate by 90%, according to Google.

It is crucial to conduct core web vitals tests and metrics using Google Page Speed Insights and other available tools to improve user experience and enhance your website’s SEO.

Tips for Improving Your Website’s Core Web Vitals

After understanding the definition and the methods of measuring Core Web Vitals on your website, it’s time to focus on how to improve them and enhance your users’ experience.

However, the extent of control you have over your website and server will be influenced by the platform you are using (such as WordPress, Shopify, etc.) and the web hosting provider you have chosen.

Enhancing Largest Contentful Paint Performance

Improving your website’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is crucial to improve user experience and boosting your search rankings. Here are some tips from Google on how to improve LCP core web vitals:

• Upgrade your web hosting to a dedicated server if you experience delays.
• Turn off any processes that can be optimized or removed, such as outdated plugins.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute your content on servers across the globe for faster loading times.
• Cache your content, so HTML pages are served cache first. Use caching plugins like W3 Total Cache or WP Fastest Cache to automatically cache your content for faster loading.
• Use preconnections to improve loading speeds when loading content from a domain other than yours.
• Preload external resources like CSS and JavaScript to ensure they are loaded at the start and avoid preventing content from loading fully.
• Minify CSS and JavaScript to remove unnecessary characters and unused code. Google recommends CSSnano and csso to minify CSS, and UglifyJS to minify JavaScript.
• Optimize and compress any text files, images, video, and block elements used on your web pages.

Implementing these tips can help improve your website’s LCP and provide a better user experience.

Learn More: How to Improve Your Google PageSpeed Insights Score?

Optimising First Input Delay for Better User Experience

Having a fast website is important, and that’s why Google introduced Core Web Vitals as a new ranking factor. One of the most important metrics is First Input Delay (FID), which measures the time it takes for a user’s first interaction with your website to register.

Here are some tips to improve your website’s FID:

• Optimize your JavaScript and usage of third-party scripts.
• Minify your scripts by removing unnecessary characters, removing unused code, and moving code not needed for the initial web page loading to a preloaded resource.
• Use Google Chrome DevTools’ Coverage feature to identify code that can be offloaded to a preloaded resource.
• Google recommends using UglifyJS to minify JavaScript and CSSnano and csso to minify CSS.
• Minify HTML with the HTML Minifier.
• Learn more about the technical details behind the Event Timing API that analyzes user interaction latency in a report by the W3C Community Group.

Learn More: The Ultimate Guide to Javascript SEO

Minimising Cumulative Layout Shift for Improved Website Stability

When visiting a website, there’s nothing more frustrating than content shifting around while trying to read or click on something. This is where the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) metric comes in.

To improve your CLS score, there are a few steps you can take:

• Add specific size attributes to images and videos or use aspect-friendly ratio boxes in CSS.
• Use on-page indicators for elements that will shift after user interaction to prevent clicking on shifting elements.

By taking these steps, you can create a more pleasant user experience and improve your CLS score.

Conclusion

If you’re looking to improve your website’s performance with users, Traffic Radius can help. Our Site Audit tool allows you to review your top pages’ Core Web Vitals, giving you valuable insights into your website’s loading speed and interactivity.

To get started, simply visit our website and select the Site Audit tool from our services. From there, you can view Core Web Vitals for your ten pages, re-run your campaign for desktop and mobile browsers, and learn more about how to improve your website’s Core Web Vitals. Don’t wait – optimise your website’s performance with Traffic Radius today.