Let’s be honest, no one likes a slow, clunky website. And Google REALLY doesn’t like them. If your site isn’t performing at its best, you could be waving goodbye to rankings, traffic and ultimately, customers. That’s where Core Web Vitals come in.
What exactly are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics that Google uses to measure how “healthy” your website is when it comes to user experience. They focus on three main things:
- Loading (Largest Contentful Paint – LCP) – how long it takes for the main content of your page to load.
- Interactivity (Interaction to Next Paint – INP) – how quickly your site responds and visibly updates after a user tries to do something, such as clicking a button.
- Visual Stability (Cumulative Layout Shift – CLS) – how much things jump around on screen while the page is loading.
Does Core Web Vitals affect SEO?
In plain English, Google wants your site to be fast, responsive and stable. If it isn’t, it could be holding you back.
Core Web Vitals are part of Google’s algorithm. They fall under something called Page Experience Signals, which means Google looks at them when deciding where to place your site in search results. If you’ve ever wondered why your beautifully designed website isn’t climbing the rankings, Core Web Vitals could be the reason.
How important are Core Web Vitals?
Very, they keep your website running smoothly. They don’t just impact SEO, they also affect bounce rates, user satisfaction and conversions. A slow, frustrating website makes users disappear faster than you can say “bounce rate”. And in today’s mobile-first world, there’s no room for poor performance. If your site doesn’t offer a seamless experience across all devices, you’ll lose out.
How do I check my Core Web Vitals?
Thankfully, you don’t need to be a tech wizard to find out how your site stacks up. Here are a couple of free tools to get you started:
- Google Search Console – look for the ‘Core Web Vitals’ report
- PageSpeed Insights – pop in your URL for an instant health check
Getting your website into good shape can take a bit of work, but the rewards are worth it. Here are our five top tips to improve your Core Web Vitals:
1. Optimise your images
Large, uncompressed images are one of the biggest culprits for slow loading, which will affect your LCP. Use modern formats like WebP, compress your files and implement lazy loading (this is when the images won’t load until the user needs them) to avoid unnecessary delays.
2. Minimise your code
Your website runs on lots of pieces of code behind the scenes. All that extra code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) can really slow things down. Removing unnecessary characters like spaces and comments can make a surprising difference to your loading speed (improving LCP and potentially INP).
3. Improve server response time
Slow servers = slow websites. Consider upgrading your hosting or using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to distribute your website’s content across multiple servers closer to your users. This can significantly improve your LCP.
4. Avoid layout shifts
Specifying the dimensions for images and videos will prevent unexpected movements of your content. This way, space is reserved and your CLS score will benefit greatly.
5. Preload key resources
When someone visits your site, you want the most important bits – like your logo, fonts or headline images – to show up straight away. By giving the browser a heads-up on what to load first, your site will look ready faster and feel more professional. Use <link rel=”preload”> to prioritise elements needed for above-the-fold content.
Ready to supercharge your website?
If all this sounds a bit overwhelming, don’t panic, that’s what we’re here for. We’re a digital marketing agency in Sussex that’s helped countless clients enhance their websites for better performance, improved rankings and happier users.
Whether you need help with your Core Web Vitals, a full SEO audit or just a bit of friendly advice, get in touch with our team today.
