How to Measure & Improve Core Web Vitals

What makes visitors scroll down a webpage? How do I improve user experience on my website? As a digital marketing professional or business owner, you are likely to ask such questions sooner rather than later. The answer? Strengthen your Core Web Vitals. These metrics are used by Google to measure user experience on a web page. In this blog post, we’ll look at the importance of Core Web Vitals and how they enable you to improve website performance and user experience. So, let’s begin! Why Are Core Web Vitals Important? Core Web Vitals enable you to analyze website user experience. Furthermore, Google’s Page Experience update has made them increasingly important in building visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). Here are three major components that’ll help you understand how Core Web Vitals impact website user experience: 1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures page loading time. Improve your LCP score by removing large images, installing a Content Delivery Network (CDN), and upgrading to a faster web host. 2. First Input Delay (FID): This metric records the time taken for the first interaction between a user and a web page. Improve your FID score by reducing JavaScript, using a browser cache, and removing non-essential third-party scripts. 3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Used to measure the visual stability of a web page, you can reduce CLS count by ensuring that ads appear on a reserved section of your web page, and using system fonts as well as set attribute media dimensions. The components mentioned above will give you specific data points to improve website user experience. How to Improve Core Web Vitals Reduce JavaScript Execution If your FID score ranges from 100 to 300 milliseconds, you’ll need to reduce JavaScript execution time. It is recommended that you use less memory because when website code requests the browser, it reserves a new memory. This stops JavaScript and slows down page loading speed. Deferring unused JavaScript enables you to reduce execution time. You can do so with code-splitting, a process in which a JavaScript bundle is separated into smaller pieces. Implement Lazy Loading Lazy loading is vital for page speed optimization. It helps you improve web page performance and convert visitors into customers. In a nutshell, it enables you to defer heavy loading elements on a web page until the page has been rendered. Lazy loading helps you: 1. Improve user experience 2. Maintain your Core Web Vitals score 3. Limit bandwidth usage 4. Make your website search engine friendly 5. Reduce bounce rate It also enables you to load images at the moment users scroll down the page. This doesn’t affect page loading speed, while improving your LCP score. Improve Server Response Time If it takes long to return content from the server, it’ll take longer to render anything on the screen. Extended server response time negatively impacts website SEO, as well as the user interface. A response time of below 600 milliseconds is recommended. You can measure it by analyzing the Time to First Byte (TTFB). This is the time taken by the browser to receive the first byte of content. How to Calculate Performance Score in Google Lighthouse Once you’ve worked on Core Web Vitals, use Google Lighthouse to audit and measure web page performance in the following areas: a. Performance b. Best Practices c. Accessibility d. Search Engine Optimization e. Progressive Web Apps The performance score has seven metrics in Lighthouse 8 and 9, which needs to have a contributing percentage to make up the total performance score. Here are Lighthouse scoring algorithm metrics along with their weighted average required in the total score: The scoring algorithm gives more weightage to Cumulative Layout Shift, Total Blocking Time, and Largest Contentful Paint. This set of metrics portrays loading, visual stability, and interactivity. Google Lighthouse also uses HTTP Archive data to identify two control points for these metrics to create a log-normal curve. The metrics are based on website performance and categorized as ‘poor’, ‘needs improvement’, or ‘good’. Performance score is based on the metrics mentioned above and the results are compared to real website data collected by the HTTP Archive. Key Takeaway Optimizing website content for Core Web Vitals will enable you to deliver a great user experience. Assess your website thoroughly and provide value to users. This will eventually improve your website SEO and enable you to own SERPs. Need Help Improving Core Web Vitals for Your Website? Contact Us!