Google Core Web Vitals measure website performance in terms of speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Optimizing them improves user experience and Google rankings. Focus on key metrics like LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FID (First Input Delay), and CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) to make your site more competitive.
Google’s Core Web Vitals are crucial for evaluating a site’s performance. Introduced by the Google team in 2020, they directly influence the site’s SEO and, consequently, its online visibility. Let’s discover together how. Keep reading!
What are Core Web Vitals or Essential Web Signals
Core Web Vitals, also known as Essential Web Signals, are key indicators selected by Google to measure the quality of experience a website offers to users.
These metrics are fundamental for analyzing “user interaction with a site. They identify areas for improvement and allow for ensuring an” optimal browsing experience.
Focused on three fundamental elements of “user experience — loading time, responsiveness to interactions, and visual consistency of pages — Core Web Vitals offer a detailed picture of a site’s” usability.
The main CWVs are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): assesses how quickly the main content becomes visible to the user.
- First Input Delay (FID): measures the page’s promptness in responding to the user’s first interactions.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): quantifies the stability of the page layout, minimizing unexpected shifts of visual elements.
Optimizing these metrics is a must for SEO in 2024, as Google incorporates them into ranking algorithms.
Sites strong in Core Web Vitals improve the quality of user experience and also have greater visibility in the SERP.
Why are Core Web Vitals important?
Core Web Vitals are direct indicators of the quality of user experience offered by a website. These parameters are essential for several reasons:
- They influence search engine rankings: Google has integrated Core Web Vitals into its ranking algorithms, making them a significant factor in determining a website’s visibility in search results.
- They improve user experience: offering smooth and pleasant navigation helps keep users on the site and encourages positive actions such as purchasing products or subscribing to services. Core Web Vitals help identify and resolve obstacles that could compromise the user experience, such as long loading times or layout instability.
- They reduce bounce rate: users browsing a site that loads quickly and responds promptly to inputs are less likely to abandon the page. From an optimization perspective, Core Web Vitals help keep users interested and engaged with the offered content.
- They increase conversions: a positive user experience encourages users to perform desired actions on the site, such as completing a purchase or filling out a contact form. Improving these parameters can therefore have a direct impact on the conversion rate.
- They provide a quantifiable benchmark: Core Web Vitals offer concrete metrics that site owners can monitor to evaluate their website’s performance. This allows for objectively identifying areas for improvement and measuring the effectiveness of implemented optimizations.
How to measure Core Web Vitals
Measuring and optimizing Core Web Vitals is an ongoing process that can significantly improve user experience and a website’s long-term success.
Here are some tools and methods that allow you to effectively evaluate these metrics:
1. Google PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a free tool offered by Google. It analyzes the content of a web page and evaluates its performance on mobile devices and desktops. It provides scores for Core Web Vitals and suggestions on how to improve.
2. Google Search Console
Google Search Console includes a Core Web Vitals report that shows how pages perform, broken down by device type (mobile or desktop). This tool helps identify pages that need improvements.
3. Lighthouse
Lighthouse is an open-source tool integrated into Google Chrome DevTools. You can use it to run performance audits of a page, including Core Web Vitals analysis.
4. Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX)
The Chrome User Experience Report offers a view based on real data rather than simulations or tests.
5. Web Vitals Extension
The Web Vitals extension for Google Chrome allows web developers and site owners to measure Core Web Vitals in real-time while browsing. It’s a useful tool for quick tests and immediate checks.
6. Google’s Test My Site
Test My Site is a Google tool focused on mobile site performance. It provides reports on loading times and suggests improvements to optimize mobile performance, including aspects related to Core Web Vitals.
How to Use Core Web Vitals Measurement Tools?
To effectively measure Core Web Vitals, we at Qreativa recommend you to:
- Conduct regular tests: monitor site performance regularly to identify any issues as soon as they arise.
- Use different tools: combine multiple tools to get a comprehensive view of site performance. Each tool can offer unique perspectives and data.
- Act on feedback: use the suggestions provided by the tools to implement and optimize Core Web Vitals.
Learn to Interpret Results and Identify Areas for Improvement: Step-by-Step Guide
Interpreting Core Web Vitals results and identifying areas for improvement is a process that requires attention and understanding of the metrics. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you with this task:
Step 1: Analyze the Results
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): a good LCP should be less than 2.5 seconds. If your site exceeds this value, examine the elements that contribute most to loading and consider optimizing images, CSS, and JavaScript files.
- First Input Delay (FID): an excellent FID should be less than 100 milliseconds. Higher values indicate that the site might have scripts that block rendering or excessive JavaScript processing that you need to optimize.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): the ideal CLS is less than 0.1. If your site has a higher value, try to identify elements that change position while the page is loading and stabilize them.
Step 2: Identify Areas for Improvement
After analyzing the scores, focus on specific areas that require attention:
- Optimize images: compress images and use modern formats like WebP to significantly reduce loading times.
- Reduce render-blocking scripts: minimize the use of CSS and JavaScript that interfere with the immediate loading of main content. Consider using the async or defer attribute for non-essential scripts.
- Improve interactivity: reduce JavaScript execution time and consider code splitting to speed up interactivity.
- Stabilize the layout: ensure that images and ads have explicit size attributes to prevent content shifts. Use reserved space for dynamic content.
Step 3: Implement Solutions
- Use optimization tools: as we have already explained in the previous paragraphs, tools like Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights offer specific suggestions to improve your pages. Make good use of them!
- Monitor changes: after implementing modifications, continue to monitor Core Web Vitals to observe the impact of your actions.
- Test on real devices: use the Chrome User Experience Report to obtain data on your site’s performance on users’ real devices.
Step 4: Always Keep Everything Under Control
Optimizing Core Web Vitals is an ongoing process. The web is constantly evolving, as are user expectations and available technologies. Maintain a regular routine of evaluation and improvement to ensure that your site always offers the best possible experience to users.
Practical Tips for Optimizing Core Web Vitals
Now it’s time to “get your hands dirty”. Follow these practical tips and if you feel up to it, start working on your website’s Core Web Vitals!
Optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
1. Optimize Loading Resources
- Compress images: use image compression tools without losing visual quality to reduce file sizes. You can use modern formats like WebP, which offers efficient compression.
- Optimize videos: for video content, consider reducing resolution or using more efficient formats. Implement lazy loading for videos not immediately visible.
2. Improve Server Response
- Use a CDN: distribute content through a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to reduce latency times.
- Optimize the server: improve server configuration, such as caching or upgrading to more powerful server resources, to reduce response times.
3. Reduce Render-Blocking CSS and JavaScript
- Minimize CSS: identify and load only the CSS necessary for immediately visible content. Use “inline CSS” techniques for important styles and defer loading of non-essential CSS.
- Defer or asynchronize JavaScript: use async and defer attributes for scripts that are not necessary for initial rendering. The browser can continue building the DOM – Document Object Model – without having to wait for the script.
4. Leverage Browser Caching
- Set appropriate cache headers: configure HTTP headers to take advantage of browser caching, so users can reload previously visited pages more quickly.
5. Preloading Important Resources
- Use preloading: for important resources that affect LCP, such as scripts, stylesheets, or images, use the rel=
preload
attribute in the <link> tag to indicate to the browser to load them first.
6. Optimized Text Fonts
- Optimize and preload fonts: if text fonts contribute significantly to LCP, consider reducing the number of font variants used and preload important fonts.
Reduce First Input Delay (FID)
FID measures the time between a user’s initial interaction with your page (for example, when they click a link, button, or use a custom input) and the moment the browser is actually able to respond to that interaction.
Here are some strategies you can implement to reduce FID and improve user experience:
1. Minimize JavaScript
JavaScript code can affect FID, as the browser must execute it before it can respond to any interaction. To reduce the impact:
- Remove or reduce unnecessary JavaScript: analyze your site to find scripts that are not essential or that can be replaced with lighter alternatives.
- Defer loading of non-essential JavaScript: use the “attribute defer in scripts that are not necessary for the initial page rendering, so their loading won’t block” interactivity.
- Split your scripts into smaller chunks: leverage code splitting to reduce the size of scripts that need to be loaded immediately, allowing other parts of code to be loaded only when necessary.
2. Optimize JavaScript Execution
Improving the “efficiency of” JavaScript execution can reduce FID:
- Use Web Workers to run JavaScript on a separate thread: this allows heavy calculations to be performed in the background, without blocking the browser’s main thread.
- Leverage time slicing: break down heavy JavaScript into smaller tasks that can be executed in separate animation frames, thus avoiding blocking “user” interaction.
3. Leverage Browser Cache
Use the browser cache to store resources locally, reducing the time needed to load scripts on subsequent visits.
4. Prioritize Inputs
Ensure that user inputs, such as clicks, are handled before other less important events. This can be achieved through proper JavaScript event handling and avoiding excessive use of event listeners that can slow down input response.
5. Regularly Monitor and Test Performance
Use tools like Lighthouse and Google PageSpeed Insights, which we’ve already discussed in this article, to monitor FID and other performance metrics. This will help you identify areas for optimization and verify the effectiveness of the changes made.
Minimize Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Minimizing Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is crucial to ensure stable and predictable navigation on your website, avoiding unexpected shifts of page elements that can disorient or frustrate users.
Here are some strategies to reduce CLS and improve the visual stability of your site:
1. Assign Explicit Dimensions to Media Elements
For images, videos, GIFs, iframes, and other media elements, always specify the dimensions (height and width) in HTML or via CSS. This way, you avoid shifts while elements are loading.
2. Use Reserved Spaces for Ads and Iframes
Advertisements and iframes can cause significant layout shifts if adequate spaces haven’t been allocated. Make sure to explicitly define the size of the spaces where these elements will be inserted, before they load.
3. Avoid Inserting Content Above Existing Content
When possible, avoid dynamically adding content (such as popups, alerts, or banners) in positions that push existing content down or in other directions. If you need to insert dynamic content, use pre-reserved spaces or techniques that don’t alter the layout of other parts of the page.
4. Load Elements That Affect Layout First
Load important elements that have a big impact on the page layout first, such as navigation bars or footers, to stabilize the initial layout before proceeding with loading secondary content.
5. Optimize Font Loading
Avoid unexpected shifts due to font loading by replacing the system font with a web font. Use the font-display: swap; property in your CSS to minimize the visual impact during font loading, so the text will be displayed immediately with a system font until the web font loads.
6. Preload Important Resources
Use <link rel=“preload”> to preload the most important resources that affect layout, such as essential images and CSS files. This will reduce shifts due to late loading of these resources.
INP: The New Standard for Evaluating Website Responsiveness
The Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is a new standard introduced in 2023 and proposed for evaluating the responsiveness of a website.
It provides a more comprehensive and representative measure of user experience compared to other existing metrics.
INP measures the time between when a user initiates an interaction (such as clicking a link or pressing a button) and the moment the browser completes displaying the result of that interaction.
Unlike FID, which only considers the first input, INP evaluates the website’s responsiveness throughout the entire duration of the user’s visit, thus offering a broader view of the quality of the interactive experience.
This new standard is important because:
- It provides a broader view because it evaluates the “entire user” experience.
- It helps identify hidden responsiveness issues that might not be evident when analyzing only the initial loading or the first interaction.
- It improves the “user experience” and ensures that users have a smooth and responsive experience.
How to optimize the website for INP?
To optimize your website and achieve a good INP score, implement these strategies:
- Reduce unnecessary JavaScript execution, break down heavy tasks into smaller ones, and use Web Workers when possible.
- Ensure that the most important resources are loaded first and consider lazy loading for non-essential images and videos.
- Optimize database queries and use caching to reduce waiting times in interactions that require data access.
- Use tools such as Google Lighthouse and Chrome User Experience Report to monitor your site’s performance and implement changes if necessary.
The introduction of INP as a metric for evaluating website responsiveness marks a step forward in the approach to measuring and optimizing online user experiences.
You need to be able to provide fast and smooth interactions for all users, or you’ll have a website that’s barely visible and certainly won’t climb the SERP!
Conclusion
You need to take Core Web Vitals seriously if you want to improve both the user experience and the search engine ranking of your website.
If you feel this is too big a challenge to face alone, turn to our team. An SEO expert will provide you with specialized support that will make a difference in positioning your website above the competition!
Don’t wait, contact us and start improving your site’s Core Web Vitals today.
