How to Improve Your Website’s Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google considers essential for a website’s user experience. These metrics focus on loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. Improving your Core Web Vitals is crucial for enhancing user experience and boosting your search engine rankings. Here are some key strategies to improve your website’s Core Web Vitals:

1. Optimise Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures the loading performance of your website. To improve LCP, focus on optimising your server response time, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), compressing images and text files, and removing render-blocking resources. Aim to have LCP occur within the first 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load.

2. Improve First Input Delay (FID)

First Input Delay (FID) measures interactivity, specifically the time it takes for the browser to respond to the first user interaction. To improve FID, minimise JavaScript execution time, remove unused JavaScript, and use browser caching. A good FID score is less than 100 milliseconds.

3. Enhance Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures visual stability, or how much the page layout shifts during the loading phase. To improve CLS, ensure that size attributes are included for all images and video elements, avoid inserting content above existing content, and use CSS to reserve space for ad slots. Aim for a CLS score of less than 0.1.

4. Minimise Render-Blocking Resources

Render-blocking resources, such as CSS and JavaScript files, can delay the loading of your web page. Minimise these resources by inlining critical CSS, deferring non-critical JavaScript, and using asynchronous loading for JavaScript. This helps improve both LCP and FID scores.

5. Optimise Images and Videos

Large images and videos can significantly impact your website’s loading time. Optimise images by using modern formats like WebP, compressing images without losing quality, and using responsive images. For videos, consider lazy loading and using video formats that are optimised for web use.

6. Implement Lazy Loading

Lazy loading defers the loading of non-critical resources, such as images and videos, until they are needed. This can improve initial load times and reduce the amount of data that needs to be loaded upfront, enhancing both LCP and FID scores.

7. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A CDN can distribute your website’s content across multiple servers worldwide, reducing the distance between the user and the server. This can significantly improve loading times and enhance the overall user experience. Ensure your CDN is properly configured to serve content efficiently.