Introduction
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure the user experience of a website. These metrics include page loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. In May 2021, Google announced that they will be using Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor for search results. This means that websites with better Core Web Vitals will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Therefore, it is crucial for website owners to optimize their Core Web Vitals to improve their website’s performance and visibility.
In this blog post, we will discuss advanced techniques for optimizing Core Web Vitals. We will explore various strategies and tools that can help improve your website’s PageSpeed Insights score and ultimately, your Core Web Vitals.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of three metrics that measure the user experience of a website: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics were selected by Google based on extensive research and data analysis as they reflect the most important aspects of a good user experience.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures the loading speed of the largest element on the screen. It should be less than 2.5 seconds to provide a good user experience. First Input Delay (FID) measures the time between when a user interacts with a page (clicks a button, taps a link, etc.) and when the page responds to that interaction. It should be less than 100 milliseconds. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures the visual stability of a page by tracking any unexpected layout shifts. A good CLS score is less than 0.1.
Optimizing Core Web Vitals
1. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN is a network of servers located all around the world that delivers website content to users based on their geographic location. This can significantly improve page loading speed, which directly impacts the LCP metric. By using a CDN, you can reduce the distance between your website’s server and the user, resulting in faster loading times.
2. Minify and compress your code
Minifying your code means removing unnecessary characters (spaces, line breaks, comments) to reduce the file size. Compressing your code means using special algorithms to further reduce the file size. Both of these techniques can help improve your website’s loading speed, thus improving your LCP metric.
3. Optimize images and videos
Large, high-resolution images and videos can significantly impact your website’s loading speed. Make sure to resize and compress images before uploading them to your website. You can also use lazy loading, which is a technique where images and videos are loaded only when they are needed (i.e. when a user scrolls to them).
4. Reduce server response time
Server response time is the time it takes for your server to respond to a user’s request. A slow response time can negatively impact your FID metric. To reduce server response time, you can choose a high-performance hosting provider, optimize your website’s code, and enable caching.
5. Enable asynchronous loading
Asynchronous loading is a technique where assets (images, videos, scripts) are loaded in parallel rather than one at a time. This can significantly improve page loading speed, thus improving your LCP metric. Use the async attribute for scripts and the defer attribute for stylesheets to enable asynchronous loading.
6. Prioritize above-the-fold content
Above-the-fold content is the part of the screen that is visible to the user without scrolling. To improve your CLS metric, make sure to prioritize loading above-the-fold content first. This will prevent unexpected layout shifts when the rest of the page loads.
7. Optimize third-party scripts
Third-party scripts, such as those for analytics and advertising, can significantly impact your website’s loading speed. Make sure to only use essential scripts and optimize them for speed. You can also delay their loading until after the rest of the page has loaded.
8. Use lazy loading for off-screen images and videos
Off-screen images and videos can cause unexpected layout shifts, which negatively impact your CLS metric. By using lazy loading, these assets are only loaded when a user scrolls to them, preventing any layout shifts.
Conclusion
Optimizing your Core Web Vitals is essential for improving your website’s performance and visibility. By implementing the advanced techniques mentioned in this blog post, you can significantly improve your website’s PageSpeed Insights score and ultimately, your Core Web Vitals. Keep in mind that achieving perfect Core Web Vitals scores may not be possible for all websites, but by continuously monitoring and improving them, you can provide a better user experience for your website visitors.