5 Tips For Bolstering The Core Web Vitals Of Your Site

The way that your website performs is critical to how your users perceive your brand on a first impression – and indeed influences whether or not they will be likely to buy from you.

Yes, there are many important on-page optimizations to help improve your SEO efforts, however, simply getting the traffic to your website is not enough; you need to deliver a superior onsite experience while you are at it.

In this article, we’re going to focus specifically on your core web vitals, including 5 tips that can help you bolster them for optimal performance.

What are your core web vitals?

The core web vitals of any website are as follows:

• Largest content paint (LCP): refers to the loading performance of your website. How long does it take to load all of the elements on your web page? For the best possible user experience, you should be aiming for around 2.5-seconds.

• First input delay (FID): refers to the interactivity of your page. For example, after the page loads and your users first interact with an on-page element (e.g., clicking on an internal link), FID measures the time it takes for the browser to begin processing the event in response to said interaction.

• Cumulative layout shift (CLS): refers to your website’s visual stability. For example, when a user begins reading some content on your website and then all of a sudden the text shifts as a new element is loaded. For the best UX your CLS should score less than 1.0.

How can you improve your core web vitals?

Now that you have a clearer idea as to what your core web vitals are, how can you improve them?

1.      Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

A content delivery network may sound like an AI writing tool; however, it is in fact very different. A CDN is a network of servers located all over the world that can be used to store and deliver your content.

In essence, when someone tries to load your website from overseas, the nearest server to their geographical location will deliver the content on your website, thus reducing the time it takes to load.

2.      Size and optimise your images accordingly

Another great tip that can improve your core web vitals significantly is to size and optimise your images accordingly.

Most images, unedited, have very large file sizes. Unless these are actively compressed, they can slow down your website’s loading speed considerably.

Fortunately, there are many image compression tools that will allow you to reduce their size without having to compromise on quality.

3.      Upgrade your hosting

If your website’s performance is lacking and you are on a standard, shared hosting package, then that is likely a large contributing factor.

For the best results you should upgrade your hosting and aim to secure your own private server. That way you aren’t sharing with any other websites at all.

4.      Keep your fonts simple and optimise them well

Similar to the images you use on your website, your chosen fonts can influence loading times. This is because it takes time to download and load the appropriate font family, variations, and sizes.

Optimising your fonts will improve loading time as the files will be smaller. However, you should also aim to be more selective when choosing your fonts and (preferably) only using the one. Keep it simple.

5.      Consider using Lazy Loading

Lazy Loading refers to the process of loading images exactly when a user reaches that part of the web page (as opposed to loading everything at once). This can help improve your LCP and loading speed with various optimization options.

Conclusion

As you can see, these changes are all about improving the overall user experience of your website. The good news? These changes will also benefit your SEO as a more positive UX means a lower bounce rate and more time spent on your website – which Google loves.

Of course, if you don’t want to go digging around in the backend of your website and feel overwhelmed by these tasks, we recommend hiring the professionals. This digital marketing agency in Dubai can make light work of these tasks and have your core web vitals functioning optimally in no time!