Core Web Vitals are page experience signals that evaluate the user experience. These signals tell you how fast visitors are able to interact with your website and the result they receive. They also measure how easily users can move through your website. If you improve the user experience, you indirectly improve Core Web Vitals.
The three Core Web Vitals are:
- Largest contentful paint (LCP): This metric measures how fast the largest elements (images, videos) load and appear on a website.
- Cumulative layout shift (CLS): CLS ensures that a website’s pages are free from unexpected, confusing movements that might disturb users.
- First input delay (FID): This metric shows how responsive your website’s pages are when users interact with them for the first time.
To determine how your website is performing in terms of Core Web Vitals, you can run a quick test on Google Page Speed Insights. To improve these metrics, follow the suggestions on the report.
Tips for Improving Core Web Vitals
To optimize Core Web Vitals, here are a few steps to follow.
Pick a caching solution
Caching your content can help reduce the load on your server. A caching tool stores the static HTML version of your pages so they don’t need to be loaded every time a visitor comes to your site. To do this, you can leverage caching at the server level or download a caching plugin like WP Rocket.
Implement lazy loading
Lazy loading allows images to load at the exact moment users scroll down a page. This prevents your images from using up all of your site’s resources. As a result, your LCP score will improve, your SEO will improve and your bounce rate will drop.
Optimize and compress images
Even with lazy loading, you still need to optimize and compress images. Use a tool like TinyJPG to reduce overall image size. You should also activate a Content Delivery Network, which stores your content on servers throughout the world. This way, the content can be delivered from the nearest server.
Upgrade WordPress hosting
If your site is taking a long time to load, it’s possible that you need to update your hosting plan. For example, switching from shared hosting to a dedicated server is an excellent way to improve LCP because large elements will load faster.
Reduce JavaScript execution
If you need to improve your FID score, consider reducing and optimizing your JavaScript execution. This will help your pages load faster because JS is delayed. In other words, it loads other content on the page when a visitor arrives, rather than waiting for all JS files to finish loading.
Continuously improving the user experience is a key part of maintaining a successful website. Fortunately, there are a number of tools and plugins that can help make this easier. And if you need help along the way, Magna Technology is here for you! Schedule a consultation at your convenience!
