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If you’re familiar with Google PageSpeed Insights, you will have noticed by now that Google have changed the way they rank your website page score. They still test your website based upon the usual things, such as mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS, etc. However, they have now also added a new feature called: ‘Core Web Vitals’. The 2 main web vitals are ‘Largest Contentful Paint’ and ‘Cumulative Layout Shift’.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – This means how long it takes for the main content of a webpage to be downloaded by the browser; above the fold content.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – This refers to the unexpected shift of web page elements whilst the webpage is still downloading.
We’re going to explain in more detail what LCP & CLS are and how they can affect your website; with some tips on how to improve them on your website!
Both your LCP & CLS must be performing fast on your website. Due to Google changing their algorithm in May 2021 if these vitals are performing poorly, your website will potentially be taking a loss in organic traffic from Google.
As we’ve explained earlier, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is effectively how long it takes for the content above the fold to load on your website.
Here is an example of it in practice:
LCP is one of the most important metrics to optimise for Web Vitals, accounting for 25% of the performance score, because it’s enhancing the user experience of website visitors to the website. If the webpage is taking more than 3 seconds to load the above-the-fold content, website users are more likely to exit the webpage.
Now you know more about LCP, you’re going to be asking “how do I improve it?” It’s just a matter of making things smaller. For example, let’s say on desktop you have a large 750kb banner image. You would need another banner image for mobile users, which would be below 100kb. This could take off 3-4 seconds of load time, as your above-the-fold content will load faster; decreasing your LCP.
Here are some more ways to optimise your Largest Contentful Paint:
Minimising CLS is important because web pages that shift up and down whilst downloading can cause a poor user experience. Have you ever experienced being on a webpage that moves up and down without you touching it? This is a Cumulative Layout Shift. Most CLS issues can be fixed relatively easily and are mostly down to poor coding.
Google says these are the most common causes of a poor CLS:
We hope that you find this blog useful and it gives you an explanation of Google’s ‘Core Web Vitals’.
It’s vital that you optimise your website in readiness for the changes in May 2021, otherwise you might be at risk and even lose your Google ranking!
If you do these changes and improve your Page Speed score, you will not only improve your SEO, you’re also improving your user experience (UX) for all visitors; which could lead to more conversions across your website.