More than 1.93 billion websites exist, with 252,000 new ones being created daily. Search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo, need to provide websites with relevant information to improve visibility on search engine result pages (SERP).
To improve user experience, search engine giants like Google constantly update their search algorithms. While content is the major component in search engine optimization, most websites tend to overlook other important page experience metrics, known as the core web vitals, that come with the latest upgrade in the Google search algorithm. You might jeopardize your SEO practices and user experience if you don't optimize your website for these metrics. This article will help you learn the fundamentals of web vitals to rank higher on the search engine results page and improve your website's visibility.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core web vitals measure a website's performance in terms of strength, navigation, loading time, consistency, and others. Google uses the indicators to determine how well a website will perform on the user's browser and to provide a roadmap for improving the overall user experience. They are also indicators of how easy it is for people to navigate your webpage, what type of output they get from your website, and how quickly they can engage with it.
A better page experience score means better visibility in search results since Google rates search results based on relevance and user experience. Google uses core web vitals to determine how well your website performs based on loading time, user interactions, and visual stability. Top SEO and digital marketing companies heavily depend on user experience for optimal results.
Core Web Vitals Metrics
In 2021, Google introduced its page experience score, which includes certain core web vitals to ‘score' the website's health. There are three key performance metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This metric measures how long it takes your site and its main content to load on the web browser and how quickly your images and videos load.
Input Delay (FID): Analyzes your website's responsiveness when a user interacts with your website and activates code.
Cumulative Layout Shift: measures how long a website can become visually stable with essential elements. It also examines whether certain elements make accessing the content difficult for the user.
How to Improve Your Core Web Vitals
A website's visibility can be improved by optimizing its core web vitals. Certain analytical tools can help you identify design and performance gaps to improve your website's core web vitals. Here are 5 effective ways you can do so:
1. Reduce JS Execution
Having a low FID score in your analytical report means your website has a hard time managing and processing input from the user. It is quite common for JavaScript to contain unnecessary lines of code that make webpages load slower, while other instances may use heavy static or dynamic variables that consume a lot of memory on the client's machine. You should always optimize JavaScript to reduce the lines of code and decrease the amount of space taken up by your code or variables to reduce input processing time.
2. Use Lazy Loading Mechanism
In lazy loading, images and other content are loaded exactly when a user scrolls down the page to that section. It is a great way to reduce page loading times. Unlike loading all the content at once, a website automatically loads content based on its requirements, helping you improve your website's ranking on SERPs by improving its LCP score.
3. Implement Image Optimization Techniques
While HDR images enhance the visual appeal of your website, they also take longer to load. You can reduce your image's size significantly without sacrificing quality and image resolution by using many free optimization tools available on the internet. Images are often even larger than embedded videos and affect your LCP score.
4. Resize Images, Ads, and Embeds To Decrease Loading Time
By setting the right width and height, the browser can allocate the right amount of space on the page for the element to load. Your visual content will appear later on your page if you don't specify its dimensions. If a picture with incorrect dimensions is not loaded quickly enough, the content on your web page may abruptly drop as your visitor scrolls through your content. This is the major reason unspecified image dimensions result in poor CLS scores. Since you did not mention any dimensions, the client's browser was unsure how much space was required. The solution is to ensure that all of your visual elements are sized correctly.
5. Use Content Delivery Networks
In a content delivery network, content is stored on servers that are distributed throughout the world. The nearest server loads your website's content when visitors send a connection request. Many web hosting providers also provide CDN solutions as part of their content optimization services. They greatly reduce loading times. Depending on your web host, you can implement your own CDN network plan or get a CDN solutions package.
Hire Top SEO and Digital Marketing Agencies for Optimal Results
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About the Author
The author of this post is a digital marketing expert with over ten years of experience in search engine optimization as well as website and image optimization. He has been associated with Xpeer for three years. In his spare time, Ian writes informational blogs and volunteers at an orphanage.
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