Google's Web Vitals initiative is a set of performance metrics that aim to give developers and site owners insights into the experience of their users. The initiative includes three core web vitals: First Input Delay (FID), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). These metrics are designed to measure different aspects of the user experience, and they can be used to help diagnose and fix performance issues on websites.
The First Input Delay metric measures the time from when a user first interacts with a page to when the browser is able to respond to that interaction. This is important because if a user has to wait too long for the page to respond, they may get frustrated and leave the site.
The Largest Contentful Paint metric measures the time from when the page starts loading to when the largest element on the page has finished loading. This is important because if the largest element on the page takes too long to load, the user may not be able to see the content that they're looking for.
The Cumulative Layout Shift metric measures the total amount of time that elements on the page are shifted around while the page is loading. This is important because if elements are constantly shifting around, it can be difficult for the user to click on the element that they want.
Web Vitals are important because they can help site owners and developers to identify and fix performance issues that may be affecting the user experience. If you're interested in learning more about Web Vitals, or if you want to see how your site measures up, you can check out the Web Vitals report in Google's PageSpeed Insights tool.
The purpose of this guide is to help webmasters improve the user experience on their websites. This can be achieved by improving the speed, image size, and content of your site.
CDN
The first thing you can do to improve your website's ranking and user experience is to optimize your site for search engines. This means using a CDN, or content delivery network, which provides faster website load times for visitors by placing the files closer to them geographically and loading them more quickly than if they came from your own server. This also means using a caching strategy that allows multiple users to access the same cached version of a page instead of downloading it all over again every time someone requests it.
Optimize image size
When you think of images, you probably think of photos or various other graphics. But there are actually a lot of different kinds of images that can be used on your website. More than just aesthetic elements, image and logo design are tools for informing visitors and enhancing their experience while on your website.
A good example is the social share buttons that appear at the top of this page: those hyperlinked icons allow users to quickly (and easily) share our content with their friends without having to leave the page in order to do so. As an added bonus, each time someone shares one of our posts via one of those buttons, it helps us rank higher in search engines like Google because these acts are considered an indication that our content is interesting and valuable—something both humans and algorithms alike can appreciate!
Minimize HTTP requests
The fewer HTTP requests a page makes, the quicker it loads. This is especially true for mobile users who might be on slower connections or have a data cap.
So what does all this mean? Well, it means that you should minimize the number of files needed to load your pages by serving them from a single domain instead of multiple hosts (e.g., yourdomain.com vs dev1.yourdomain.com and dev2.yourdomain.com). You can also minimize the number of requests made by combining JavaScript and CSS resources into one file (which is known as concatenation) or minifying your CSS/JavaScript files so they're smaller in size when downloaded by visitors (this process is called compression).
Avoid blocking assets
Blocking assets is when a browser can't download an asset because of something else that's downloading at the same time. This causes the page to load slowly, or not load at all. It can also cause your site to lose its ranking in search results.
Blocking assets include:
- JavaScript files that are not minified or compressed
- Media files (like images and videos) that aren't compressed
To avoid blocking assets, make sure that you're using a CDN for your media and JavaScript files—or at least host them on your own server if you don't want to pay for a CDN.
Use an effective caching strategy for your site
Caching is a process that stores the data of a web page in the browser, reducing the load on your server and speeding up your site. It can be done at either the browser level or the server level.
Caching at the browser level: In this method, you serve pre-rendered HTML to users who visit your website from Google search results. This means that when someone searches for one of your pages online and clicks on it, they are shown an already rendered version of that page instead of having to wait for it to load again with new information. This helps make sure their experience is as seamless as possible—especially if they’re coming back later!
Caching at the server level: Caching involves storing previously viewed versions of content on servers so they don’t need to be re-downloaded each time someone opens a webpage containing such content (like how many social media sites cache posts). This method works well if you want visitors who have visited recently to not only to enjoy the better performance but also to interact with fewer ads while browsing through old posts or comments sections since most cached pages won't include them anyway!
Eliminate render-blocking resources in above-the-fold content
Render-blocking resources are any external scripts that block the rendering of your page. This includes code from analytics providers, social media buttons, and ads. The main issue with render-blocking resources is that they cause a delay in loading your page content, which can be unpleasant for users.
To check if you have any render-blocking resources in above-the-fold content, click on the PageSpeed Insights icon on the Chrome toolbar and select “Page” from the left menu to open up its performance analysis tool (see image below). Then head over to Audits > Render Blocking Resources and run it to see what's slowing down your site (see image below).
The solution here is easy: just remove these scripts! Ideally, you should do this after each update or redesign so you don't end up with an outdated version of something like Google Analytics or Facebook tracking pixels that no longer work properly when URLs change (e.g., due to switching domains). If there are too many changes needed then use a tool such as html5shiv/modernizr instead—it's a JavaScript library that enables HTML5 elements without forcing them into older browsers while also fixing broken layouts caused by CSS3 properties being unsupported by IE8+.
Configure the browser cache effectively
The browser cache is a data storage mechanism in which your browser stores resources you request from websites. This helps speed up the loading of webpages by reducing the need to re-download files from the server every time you visit these sites. You can configure or disable caching for each site individually, or you can use a global setting to control all caching for all sites that don’t have their own specific configuration.
To configure browser caching:
- Open Settings > Privacy and security > Content settings (in some browsers this might be called Advanced options).
- Choose Cookies and other site data, or just Cookies if there isn’t an option for 'Other site data'.
Avoid landing page redirects
When a user arrives at your site and is immediately redirected to another page, it's often a sign that the visitor was searching for something specific, but wasn't able to find what they were looking for. Redirects can also be used to track users as they make their way around a website—and sometimes even across multiple sites—so that you can get more information about where they came from and how they use your platform. This isn't necessarily bad if you're using those redirects responsibly (like for tracking purposes), but if it feels like you're being tracked when there's no reason why someone should be tracking your movements on their website, then there might be an issue with how their redirects are set up.
Enable compression
Compression is an excellent way to improve page load time. Compression tools like Gzip, Brotli, and Zopfli will make your site load faster by reducing the size of files that need to be downloaded.
Gzip is a compression algorithm that compresses text files like HTML and CSS. You can enable it in Nginx, Apache, or IIS servers. Simply add gzip on; at the top of your server configuration file (e.g: /etc/Nginx/sites-available/example) to tell NGINX to compress server responses with gzip.
Alternatively, you can use mod_deflate for Apache and Add-on Module for IIS 8+. On Windows 10 go to Control Panel > Programs > Turn Windows features on or off > Select “Internet Information Services” feature checkbox then click the Ok button once the installation is complete restart server services so these changes take effect immediately.
Then, select Advanced Settings from the left navigation menu under Management Tools section then double click Server Configuration node beneath Service Definition folder expand out Compression option set EnableCompression property value as True to save changes close browser window reopen browser window go back into network tab now see the compressed content response!
Final words
As you can see, there are many ways to improve the user experience of your site and make it rank higher in search results. But these tips are just the beginning of what you can do to improve your website. With a little bit of work and some patience, you’ll be able to boost your rankings and traffic in no time!