Core Web Vitals – What They Are and How to Improve Them
When you have a website, it’s important to optimize it for the best user experience (UX). Otherwise, you’ll likely be dealing with low conversions, high bounce rates and poor engagement. A great way to enhance your site is by improving your Core Web Vitals. By doing this, you can boost your visibility in the search rankings.
Let’s learn more about what the Core Web Vitals are and how to improve them.
What are the Core Web Vitals?
Google is always making changes to its algorithms to improve the way it crawls and ranks websites. One of the improvements most recently made was the Core Web Vitals. They play a major role in search engine optimization in Baton Rouge. So, if you want to improve your position in the search rankings, you’ll need to pay close attention to the Core Web Vitals.
Here are the three Core Web Vitals to be aware of:
- Largest contentful paint (LCP)
- First input delay (FID)
- Cumulative layout shift (CLS)
These are not the only factors that Google looks at when determining the page experience. Google also looks at things like mobile-friendliness, HTTPS and safe browsing. But the Core Web Vitals are some of the newest factors, and important ones to be aware of. Let’s look at each one in more detail and what they mean for your website.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP measures how long it takes for your page to load, from the time a user clicks to the time most of your page loads. The whole page doesn’t need to load – only enough for users to see the majority of your content. This is why it’s different from page speed.
If your LCP is more than 2.5 seconds, it needs some improvement. Some of the things you can do are use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), compress and optimize images, minify CSS and reduce unused JavaScript.
First Input Delay (FID)
FID tracks interactivity, or how quickly users can interact with your content. This metric is important because it tells you how fast your site loads and how responsive it is. If your FID falls between 100 and 300 milliseconds, it needs improvement.
Sometimes, input delays happen because there’s too much JavaScript loading. So you may need to remove or minify unnecessary JavaScript files. Another thing you can try is to remove non-critical third-party sites that are slowing things down.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS measures the visible stability of a page. To do this, it evaluates how many times the various elements on your page – images, copy, video – jump while they load. An example is when a user clicks on a button and is unable to complete the action because an image is blocking it.
If your CLS score is more than 0.1 seconds, you’ll need to do some work. Make sure that your media has the appropriate sizes set. You can also check the sizes for images, videos, graphics and other visual content. Also, make sure you’re not using too much JavaScript.
By optimizing your website for the Core Web Vitals, you can improve search engine optimization and user experience. If you need help optimizing your website, get in touch with KBDC, Inc today. We’ll make sure that your site is performing its best!