Improve Your Website's Core Web Vitals: A How-To Guide

What are Core Web Vitals?

Google announced its algorithm update of core web vitals in May 2020 and also informed that this update will be applicable from June 2021.

Core web vitals are page experience signals that identify the user experience of the website and track how seamlessly users are able to navigate through your site and get what they are looking for.

The important components of web core vitals include; load time, interactivity, and visual stability. Various factors determine the overall user experience of your site and if you are unsure whether it is good or not, there are different tools that will help you find out about your site experience and how you can improve it. Google has made it easier for search engine optimizers and site owners to measure web core vitals through a range of tools available online.

We will be talking about the tools later in this article but we need to identify whether the user experience of your site is good or not. Let’s talk about the important core web vitals metrics on which the user experience is reliant.

Why are Core Web Vitals Important?

Google measures the user experience of your site which can up your Google ranking at least by one position.  There are various metrics of Google core web vitals, which if improved, can significantly increase the traffic on your website and help you establish digitally. A poor user experience can result in a higher bounce rate. To make effective use of tools, here are some important metrics you need to know about.

Most Important Metrics of Core Web Vitals

1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)- This metric measures how long the content takes to appear on the web page for users. Google recommends the LCP should be under 2.5 seconds.

2. Cumulative Layout Shift( CLS)- This metric measures the number of unexpected layout shifts which cause problems while reading webpage content and interacting with the website.  Google recommends a CLS score of 0.1 seconds or less.

3. First Input Delay(FID)-  This metric measures your web page response time when the user interacts with your webpage for the first time and also measures how quickly the website browser provides results to the users. Google recommends the speed to be less than 100 milliseconds.

Tools to Measure Core Web Vitals

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console helps site owners to evaluate pages across the entire site.  This tool helps you thoroughly analyze the pages that may require improvements and fixes. You can use the Chrome UX report to determine the performance of your site.

The URLs are segregated as per their status; Poor, Needs Improvement, and Good.

Google Search Console states how your webpages are performing based on Core web vitals.

2. Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an automated website auditing tool that allows developers to audit and assess their sites and find out which areas need improvement. These areas include; performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices.

Lighthouse measures for user experience include; Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS),  (Total Blocking time )TBT, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Time To Interactive (TTI).

3. Chrome UX Report (CrUX)

Chrome UX report is not a tool but a dataset that consists of real-world user experience data from different sites. This dataset measures field data on all core web vital metrics.

As a developer, you can make optimum use of this dataset and identify which areas of your website need work.

4. PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights is capable of measuring core web vitals in lab and field sections of the reports on both mobile and desktop. This tool gives you an idea about how the users experience your page and what improvements you can make to improve the page experience for your customers.

This tool also allows you to test whether your website meets all the user-friendly core web vital metrics or not.

5. Chrome DevTools

Chrome DevTools is a tool available on Google Chrome that can be accessed in two clicks. Right Click on the desktop, choose ‘Inspect’ and the Chrome DevTools will show up.

This tool helps you analyze core web vital metrics whereas the experience section present inside will help you detect unexpected layout shifts.

Overall, you can find and fix the issues associated with visual instability that contributes to Cumulative Layout Shift( CLS).

6. Web Vitals Extension

This is a new chrome extension that measures three web core vital metrics easily.

This extension is available on the Chrome Web Store for installation.

These are some of the tools that will help you identify the aspects you need to improve for a better user experience. Improving the core web vitals can positively increase your rankings and deliver the desired results.

Apart from utilizing tools, you can also implement some important tips to improve the user experience of your website. They are as follows

Tips to Improve Core Web Vitals

Here are 6 tips that improve your website Core Web Vitals scores. Let’s know them:

1. Reduce JavaScript (JS) Execution

If you notice a poor FID score on the report, it means the page takes more than 300 milliseconds to interact with users.

Reducing the time between your browser execution JS code and page which in short is also called JS execution.

Also, make sure to use as little memory as possible because whenever your site’s code requests the browser, it occupies memory that stops JavaScript and possibly slows down the page.

2. Pay attention to attributes or dimensions of your media or ads

This is very important to improve your CLS scores. One must ensure that their image or any media source’s height or width is proper.

If you plan to place any display ad make sure to set your ads with proper dimensions because improper ads can reduce the CLS score.

Thus, keep an eye on other media sources as well if you wish to place any.

3. Image Optimization

Images are one of the most influencing factors in web core vitals.

With the plenty of lazy load packages out there you can use one to lazy load all the images on your page.

This will make your page lighter and require less loading time for rendering your page in the browser.

One more important thing, define your image resolution based on the device type. The resolution for different devices should be different.

4. Improve the server response time

A long-serving response time is harmful to your SEO and negatively affects your UX.

You can use specialized tools to measure the server response time. However, before starting, compile the data of your current performances to identify how you are doing.

To compile the data:

• Check the speed of web hosting

• Use (Content delivery Network) CDN.

• Pick only necessary plugins for your site as each comes with an additional weight that can affect your site’s performance.

Based on the report, work on your site’s improvements and make your response server time faster. A faster server time improves page load metrics and LCP as well.

5. Reduce the overall page/document size

A heavy landing page contributes badly to the LCP score. To avoid this only use the data that is necessary for your rendering page and eliminate all the useless data.

6. Use fonts wisely

Fonts can drop your performance scores if the browser takes time to load the custom font used on your site.

The good thing to do here is to load your site with the fonts that are by default supported by the browser.

These tips will enhance the page experience for your users and have positive effects in both the long-term and short term.

Final Words

Improving page experience as a part of your SEO strategy can improve the user experience of your site and possibly improve the ranking of your site.

Google supports the site that delivers valuable and comprehensive content along with a good user experience. So make sure not to miss on creating good content for your readers along with delivering a good user experience.