Chances are, you have heard that user experience is important if you have a WordPress site. Yet what does this really mean in the eyes of Google? In 2021, Google introduced a new update according to which Core Web Vitals is one of the basic ranking factors.

In simple words, Core Web Vitals are a group of measurements that indicate how fast your site is being loaded, how fast people can interact with it, and how non-jittery it feels during load. When your site is slow, clunky, and moving the pieces around, visitors will not want to spend more time there, and neither will Google.

As a WordPress site owner, Core Web Vitals is not just about optimizing to rank high in search engines but also about integrating it into ensuring that users come and stay glued to your site and become satisfied users, and hopefully, they will spend some resources or even become a customer. In the current tutorial, we will learn what core web vitals are, why they are important, and how to optimize core web vitals step-by-step in WordPress..

What Are the Core Web Vitals?

Google released the Core Web Vitals as a means to gauge real-life user experience. Three key metrics you need to monitor:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):

This tests the amount of time it takes the principal content of your page to load. Think of it as the duration employed by the largest piece of content, say a hero image or huge heading, to display.

Good: less than 2.5 seconds

First Input Delay FID:

This examines the speed at which your site loads when a user engages with it (i.e., clicks a button or taps a menu).

Good score: less than 100 milliseconds

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS):

This examines the stability in the speed of your site’s loading. Have you ever wanted to click on something, and it shifted because a pop-up ad appeared? That is not a layout shift, and it aggravates the users.

Why Do Core Web Vitals Matter for WordPress Websites?

People just are not patient, so why should they wait around? They will also close your WordPress site and visit the competition instead because it takes them too long to load your site. Here is the importance of Core Web Vitals:

They have an impact on search engine optimization rankings. Google has officially declared that Core Web Vitals are ranking factors.
They enhance the experience of the user. The quicker and the more substantial the smooth pages are, the more people will stay.
They increase conversion rates. A faster page leads to an increase in visitor retention.
They increase conversions. Regardless of what type of online property you have (online store, blog, or business site), a faster experience can generally lead to more sales/leads/clicks.
This is extra important with WordPress users because they heavily utilize plugins and themes, which often slow things up in case of improper optimization.

How to Check Core Web Vitals in WordPress

Core Web Vitals in WordPress: A Complete Guide to Better Rankings and User Experience

Before correcting the site, you must determine the performance of the site. And this is what I have so far of free tools to use:

Google PageSpeed Insights: Here, you just add your link, and it provides you with detailed information about your Core Web Vitals metrics.
Google Search Console: It will tell you about the Core Web Vitals problems on various pages of your site, should you have linked it.
Performance tab in DevTools: Very nice to test directly in your browser.
WebPageTest or Tmetrix: Advanced functionalities are detailed in terms of speed, server response times, and page load times.

After testing your site, you will be aware of what needs the most improvement.

How To Optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) In WordPress

Given that LCP evaluates the speed at which your loading occurs, slow web servers, the ineffective optimisation of pictures, and blocks that prevent rendering are the worst offenders.

TROS to Address LCP

Upgrade to a better hosting: A fast server implies a fast site. WordPress managed hosting supported by Kinsta, SiteGround, or WP Engine can be a major improvement.
Install a Caching Plugin: WP Rocket, LiteSpeed Cache, or W3 Total Cache are the ones that minimize the load time.
Image Optimization: Optimize images to WebP and compress using tools such as ShortPixel, Imagify, or Smush.
Lazy Loading of images and videos: This avoids the display of media all at once.
Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network): CloudFlare, BunnyCDN, or StackPath can deliver your content to users across the globe in less time.

How to Improve First Input Delay (FID) in WordPress

FID is nothing but responsiveness. When your WordPress site gives others a sluggish feeling when they click a link, there is a lot of script running in the background.

Tips on how to Fix FID

Reduce JavaScripts: Autoptimize or Asset CleanUp leaves off unimportant scripts.
Asynchronously Load Scripts: Send scripts that are not critical to load early so that they do not hold up your main content.
Eliminate Plugin Bloat: Copy/pasting plugins you do not require. Additional features on the form of plugins tend to get more scripts added.
Use a Lightweight Theme: You can use a theme like Astra, GeneratePress, or Kadence that is optimized to be lightweight.

What to Do to Reduce Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) in WordPress

LS occurs when the elements of your website shift to undesired positions. This is usually as a result of ads, pop-ups, or images that do not have actual dimensions.

Tips to increase CLS

Image Size: Image sizes should always be defined in width and height.
Reserved Space of Ads and Embeds: Allocated a fixed space so that the ads and the embeds cannot push the content around.
Avoid Intrusive Popups: Fewer popups or postpone when the main content is loaded.
Font optimization: Include a font-display: swap, which causes there to be a moment of disappearance when fonts are loading the custom fonts.

Best Plugins for Core Web Vitals Optimization in WordPress

When keywords show on your site at random times, it is known as CLS. This tends to be advertisements, pop-ups, or images that have not been assigned dimensions.

CLS tips to improve

Image Dimensions: It is always necessary to define the width and height of images.
Reserve Space for Advertisements and Embeds: Reserve some specified space so that they will not force content to move.
Avoid Intrusive Pop-ups: Have very few pop-ups and wait till the main content has finished loading.
Font Optimization: font-display: swap hidden text as fonts render.

The Best Plugins to Optimize Core Web Vitals in WordPress

These are some tried and tested plugins that will speed up your Core Web Vitals:

WP Rocket- An all-round caching and performance plugin
LiteSpeed Cache: Great as long as your hosting supports LiteSpeed servers
Perfmatters – Assists in disabling redundant scripts to be disabled.
Autoptimize – Minifies JS and CSS files
Mush or ShortPixel– Optimize images and lazy load

These plugins may aid, but again, the fewer the better. A lot slows down your site. Selecting the best WordPress Theme to get a good performance.

The theme is something that is important in Core Web Vitals. Several WordPress users choose visually impressive themes that have redundant code.

The best lightweight themes are Astra, GeneratePress, Neve, and Kadence

Stay away from too heavy-handed page builders: Page builders can cause performance drops unless carefully optimized. If you use them, then combine them with caching and script optimization.

Gutenberg (Block Editor): The WordPress core is fast and uncluttered as compared to most external editors.

Advanced Tips to Boost Core Web Vitals in WordPress

After you have learned the basics, these are the advanced tactics:

Preload Key Resources: Fonts, key scripts can also be preloaded.

Use a Contemporary Image Format: WebP and AVIF are quicker-loading than JPEG or PNG.

Schema Markup: This will assist the search engines in being in a better position to define your content.

Enable web server caching: This is used when there is a need to have faster database queries >> use Redis or Memcached.

Track Performance regularly: Core Web Vitals are known to change at specific periods; thus, monitoring them should be done regularly.

Conclusion

Core Web Vitals may sound like a technical term at first, but all they are is getting your website to be one heck of a joy to navigate through. When your site loads quickly, responds to every action in time, and does not make visitors feel frustrated by changing layouts, all these will not only improve the ranking on Google but will also encourage visitors to come back.

The silver lining is that WordPress arms you with a lot of tools that can help you work with these benchmarks and achieve them: plugins, themes, CDNs, and caching solutions. Once you concentrate on LCP, FID, and CLS, you will make a website that is not only SEO-friendly but also user-friendly.

Remember, SEO is no longer keyword-based- it is all about turning over the best possible experience to your visitors. And that is what Core Web Vitals are: the roadmap to.