When building a website, the way you display your content plays a crucial role in its success. Your site should have a user-friendly layout that is easy to navigate. Regardless of how great your content is, if your website takes too long to load or has annoying visual issues like jumping images or paragraphs, users will be discouraged from reading it. Google’s recent algorithm update, called Core Web Vitals (CWV), emphasizes the importance of user experience (UX) by introducing new criteria to measure it.
CWV consists of three ranking factors introduced by Google in June 2021: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). LCP measures how long it takes for the primary content of your page to load. FID assesses the time it takes for your page to become interactive. CLS measures the visual stability of your pages, ensuring that elements don’t shift unexpectedly. These factors have an impact on your website’s rankings.
In addition to CWV, Google considers other elements for ranking, such as mobile-friendliness, site security, and the absence of intrusive pop-ups on mobile devices. These factors collectively form the Page Experience ranking signal.
Studies have shown that some lesser-known platforms like Shift4Shop and Volusion outperform big names like Shopify and Wix in terms of CWV performance. Desktop sites generally outperform mobile sites, and Shopify boasts the fastest server response times.
To test your website’s performance in relation to CWV, you can use tools like PageSpeedInsights, which provides a score between 0 and 100. A score of 90-100 is considered good. With Google Search Console, you can access the Core Web Vitals Report to see how your site performs in each metric.
To optimize your website for CWV, consider the following tips:
1. Limit the use of apps and plugins that can slow down your site. Keep only the necessary ones and uninstall unnecessary ones.
2. Choose simpler templates and be cautious with code. Complex templates and excessive code can impact loading speed. Opt for simpler templates with less code and be mindful of adding additional code.
3. Optimize your images by compressing them and using lazy loading. Compressed images reduce file sizes, while lazy loading ensures that images only load when they are visible to the user.
By implementing these optimizations, you can improve your website’s performance and meet the criteria set by Google’s Core Web Vitals update.