How Core Web Vitals Impact SEO: A Guide to Improving Site Performance
The performance of your website matters —every business knows that. Search engines love websites that are fast, smooth, and user-friendly, as this also dictates how the world is becoming fast-paced. No one wants to wait for a page to load, especially when they are already on the road looking for that specific destination. This is where Core Web Vitals come in handy, especially when you are running a website with Impressive SEO. It sounds so technical, we know, but taking time to understand it can be a game changer that can soar your website to better ranking heights.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core web vitals are your search engine’s way of measuring how healthy your website is for users and potential customers. In simpler terms, these are three key metrics to gauge the experience of the users on your website. These key metrics are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) determines how fast your webpage loads.
- First Input Delay (FID) gives you an idea of how your site quickly responds to an interaction, like tapping a link.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) indicates how stable your page is whenever a user loads it.
Why Should You Care About Core Web Vitals?
The straightforward answer to this question is that every search engine depends on your website’s “vitals.” And these key metrics will affect your SEO rankings, so this is critical, especially if you are an Australian business where online competition is fierce and your business needs to stand out from the crowd.
Here’s why Core Web Vitals matter:
- It leads you to better rankings, especially if your website loads faster, smoother, and is more user-friendly than your competitors.
- It keeps your visitors engaged because your website’s fast and stable user experience.
- It keeps the visitors engaged and entertained because they stick around your website and even sign up for your newsletters.
How to Improve Core Web Vitals (Without Losing Your Mind)
The great news is that you need not go back to school and have a degree in web development for you to improve your website. Here are practical steps you can take to boost your Core Web Vitals:
Optimise Images and Videos. Your website can lag and even bog down if you upload high-res images and videos with large file sizes. Software and apps are now available online that can help you compress your files without sacrificing the quality.
Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN is like a backup storage, as it stores copies of your site on servers around the world. There are lots of CDNs around the world wide web, and they can optimise your website by making it load faster wherever you are on the globe.
Minimise unnecessary code. Your trips are not the only thing you need to travel light on, as your website needs it too. As much as possible, trim unnecessary scripts. You can also use plugins so you can better clean your codes and check what needs to be fixed.
Limit third-party scripts. Keep what is necessary; this is the mantra of this step. Too many external scripts can sacrifice the loading time of your website and reduce its performance.
Prioritise mobile optimisation. Almost everyone is on their phones at any time of the day, so to make sure that your website responds well to touch and that your page loads quickly, a mobile-friendly test is one immediate way to check these concerns.
Enable lazy loading. Modern website platforms enable this feature called lazy loading, and what it does is it delays the loading of nonessential images until users scroll to them so that it keeps your website faster and reduces the lagging to none.
The Australian Connection
Aussies are all about convenience and speed. And in this season where last-minute holiday bookings and shopping are the trend, customers and users expect seamless online experiences. And when you ignore even the slightest of inconveniences, someone else will give your potential customers what they need, and we don’t want that.
The downside of this competitive market is that the attention spans of the customers are relatively short, and you can flip this issue around to keep it in your favour just by giving the users a fast and efficient online experience.
Take it step by step and tweak your site performance through Core Web Vitals.
Responsiveness and stability—these are the simple but complex elements that would set your business up for satisfied visitors and better search engine rankings.