Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that measure the performance and user experience of a website. They include metrics such as loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. These metrics are considered important because they have been found to have a direct impact on the user experience and are used by Google as part of its ranking algorithm for search results. Improving Core Web Vitals can lead to better search engine visibility and increased user engagement.
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What are the Core Web Vitals Metrics?
Core Web Vitals is a set of performance metrics that measure the user experience of a website. These metrics include:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures loading performance and is the time from when the page starts loading to when the largest text or image is rendered on the screen.
- First Input Delay (FID): Measures interactivity and is the time from when a user first interacts with a page (e.g. clicks a button) to the time when the browser is able to respond to that interaction.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Measures visual stability and quantifies the unexpected layout shift of visible elements within the viewport.
These metrics are considered important because they have been found to have a direct impact on the user experience and are used by Google as part of its ranking algorithm for search results. A good performance on these metrics can contribute to better search engine visibility and increased user engagement.
How to Improve Core Web Vitals?
To optimize Core Web Vitals on a WordPress site, you must have to do core web vitals SEO. There are several steps as below:
- Optimize images: Large image files can slow down page loading times. Use image optimization plugins to reduce image file sizes without compromising on quality.
- Minimize HTTP requests: Too many HTTP requests can slow down a page. Use a plugin like WP Minify to combine and minify CSS and JavaScript files.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN can help speed up the delivery of your site’s content to users by caching and distributing it across multiple servers.
- Optimize your database: Optimize your database by removing unnecessary data, like old post revisions, and consider using a caching plugin like WP Super Cache to reduce the number of requests to the database.
- Use a lightweight theme: Using a lightweight theme can help reduce the amount of code and files that need to be loaded, which can improve page load times.
- Use a performance plugin: There are several performance optimization plugins available for WordPress, such as Autoptimize, WP Fastest Cache, and W3 Total Cache, which can help improve Core Web Vitals and other performance metrics.
Please note that this is general guidance and the specific steps to optimize Core Web Vitals for your WordPress site may vary depending on the theme and plugins you are using.
How to Address LCP Issues?
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a Core Web Vital metric that measures the time it takes for the largest text or image element within the viewport to load. An LCP of longer than 4 seconds is considered a poor user experience and steps should be taken to improve it.
To address LCP issues on a desktop, some potential solutions include:
- Optimizing images: Large image files can slow down page loading times. Use image optimization plugins or tools to reduce image file sizes without compromising on quality.
- Minimizing HTTP requests: Too many HTTP requests can slow down a page. Use a plugin like WP Minify to combine and minify CSS and JavaScript files.
- Leveraging browser caching: Enabling browser caching can help speed up page loading times for repeat visitors by storing resources locally on their devices.
- Deferring non-critical resources: Deferring the loading of non-critical resources, such as ads and analytics scripts, can help improve the LCP by allowing the main content to load more quickly.
- Optimize your code: Optimize your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript Code, this can help to reduce the size of the files that need to be loaded and improve the LCP.
- Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN): A CDN can help speed up the delivery of your site’s content to users by caching and distributing it across multiple servers.
How to Improve First Input Delay (FID)?
First Input Delay (FID) measures interactivity and is the time from when a user first interacts with a page (e.g. clicks a button) to the time when the browser is able to respond to that interaction. Here are some ways to improve FID:
- Minimize JavaScript execution: Reduce the amount of JavaScript code that runs on page load, by removing unnecessary code, or delaying the execution of non-critical scripts.
- Break up long tasks: Break up long-running JavaScript tasks into smaller chunks and spread them out over time, to avoid blocking the main thread for too long.
- Optimize third-party scripts: Minimize the use of third-party scripts, or delay their execution until they are needed.
- Use web workers: Use web workers to move complex or long-running JavaScript tasks to a background thread, so they don’t block the main thread.
- Code splitting: Use code-splitting techniques to only load the JavaScript that is needed for the current page, rather than loading all the JavaScript upfront.
- Measure and Monitor: Continuously measure the FID using the tools mentioned above and monitor your website’s performance to identify any new issues that may arise.
Keep in mind that it’s a balance between reducing the execution time of JavaScript and ensuring the needed functionality is not compromised. It’s also important to test your changes on different devices, browsers, and network conditions to ensure that the improvements do not negatively impact other areas of the website.
How to Address CLS Issues?
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a Core Web Vital metric that measures the visual stability of a website, or how much the layout of a website changes while it’s loading. A CLS score of more than 0.1 is considered a poor user experience and steps should be taken to improve it.
To address CLS issues on a desktop, some potential solutions include:
- Using dimensions on images and videos: Specifying the dimensions of images and videos can prevent layout shifts caused by browser reflows when the elements load.
- Avoiding the use of non-composited animations: Animations that are not composited by the browser can cause layout shifts, so it’s best to avoid them.
- Using font-display: Using the font-display property on web fonts can prevent the browser from using a fallback font and causing layout shifts.
- Avoiding the use of dynamic ads: Ads that are inserted into the page after it has loaded can cause layout shifts, so it’s best to avoid them.
- Avoiding unexpected user input: Unexpected user input, such as buttons or links that change the layout of the page, can cause layout shifts, so it’s best to avoid them.
- Properly size your ads and iframes: If ads and iframes are not properly sized, it can cause layout shifts when they load.
It’s important to note that this is just general guidance and the specific steps to improve CLS may vary depending on the theme and plugins you are using. It’s a good idea to use web performance testing tools such as Google Lighthouse, GTmetrix, and webpagetest.org to identify where the problem is and to track the progress of your optimization.
How to Measure Core Web Vitals?
There are several ways to measure Core Web Vitals:
- Google Chrome DevTools: You can use the browser’s built-in developer tools to measure Core Web Vitals. Open the developer tools by right-clicking on the page and selecting “Inspect” or using the keyboard shortcut (Ctrl+Shift+I). Go to the “Performance” tab and record a performance profile of the page. The profile will show you a detailed breakdown of the page’s load performance, including the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
- Google PageSpeed Insights: This tool analyzes the content of a web page and generates suggestions to make that page faster. It also provides a score for each of the Core Web Vitals, along with detailed suggestions for improving them.
- Lighthouse: It is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It can be run as a Chrome Extension, from the command line, or as a Node module. It has an audit feature that can audit the web page and provide a report of the performance, accessibility, and more, including the Core Web Vitals.
- Web Vitals JS library: This library provides a JavaScript API for measuring web vitals, which can be used to measure the Core Web Vitals on your website and send the data to your analytics service.
- Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX): This tool provides a way to measure real-world user experience with a public dataset of Chrome user experience metrics, including the Core Web Vitals, from actual users visiting your site with Chrome.
It’s important to note that Core Web Vitals should be measured across different devices, browsers, and network conditions to get a complete picture of the user experience. Measuring regularly will help you identify issues and track progress over time.
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