The Google Core Web Vitals analysis is a big step in the evolution of web analytics. The new metrics that matter are now page loading speed, mobile responsiveness, and security. Here are multiple ways to get started on optimizing your website for these new core web vitals.
Make Sure You’re Not a Victim of Mobilegeddon by Making Your Site Responsive to Mobile Devices
- Use Google’s PageSpeed Insights Analyzer to identify and fix performance issues.
- Minimize the size of your images to help improve page load times.
- Select a modern web browser as default for accessing your site
- Update your password policies from “medium” to “strong.”
Security matters more than ever.
- Use a password manager to create strong passwords.
- Update your hosting provider’s SSL certificate before it expires.
Any lapse in site security will cause a setback in rankings. Google continues to push for enhanced website security, making it the right time to initiate tightening the site to avoid slipping in their search rankings.
Check if third-party elements like plugins and scripts can be removed or updated with more secure versions. Sometimes the fewer plugins, the better because each one adds overhead and potential security weaknesses to your platform.
You can also use Google’s Safe Browsing Diagnostics to check for any malware or phishing attacks that may have infected your site. That will give you insight into how well your website will withstand standard attempts.
The new demands are in place as of May 2021, so all sites need to comply from that point forward.
Implement a CDN to Serve Content Quickly
Nobody wants to wait for a website to serve content.
A CDN will help your website to load faster, making visitors want to stay.
Use a web performance tool like Pingdom’s Website Speed Test or Google PageSpeed Insights to test the speed of your site and identify any problems that need fixing. These tools issue helpful warnings that will show you the bottlenecks that require fixing.
Google is now using a new way to judge site speed and rank websites. The new metrics, ‘Core Web Vitals,’ include a page’s download time, whether or not it displays well on mobile devices, how quickly pages load when JavaScript is disabled, and more.
It takes some work for businesses of all sizes to meet these new requirements, and small businesses will struggle. That’s one reason it may be time to develop a new website.
Reduce the Number of Requests to the Server
One way to reduce the number of requests a site makes is by using lazy loading.
Lazy loading refers to deferring some page elements until they are visible on screen, rather than having them all be loaded at once and displayed in parallel. This technique reduces load times and can dramatically improve performance for visitors with low-bandwidth connections or slow phones.
Minimize the Amount of Data Transferred Between Client and Server
The typical approach is to reduce the size of images and other media. You can also use sprites or CSS background-size: 100% to avoid downloading too much data at once for repeatedly used elements on your site.
Another way is through data compressions, such as using GZIP with your Apache web server or Nginx.
Improve Browser Caching by Using a CDN or Increasing Expiration Times
Using a CDN speeds things up. Popular CDNs like Amazon Cloudfront cache resources and serve them at the edge.
Redirects are a quick fix for when the server that hosts your web page is offline, but they can slow down performance and even break features when done improperly. You should avoid redirecting pages with JavaScript or in-page iframes unless you have no other choice.
If you do need to use them, keep their number.
- Avoid redirects as much as possible.
- Use appropriate content types for each response type (text/plain, text/Html, application/x-javascript.)
- Compress resources with GZIP compression when transferring them over HTTP connections.
It will take time and effort to convert your website to the new specifications. It may be time to consider moving to a no-code platform website builder to avoid heavy lifting and get a better design.
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