Optimising Core Web Vitals for page speed and bounce rate

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google considers crucial in determining the user experience of a website. 

Websites that perform well in these areas are more likely to rank better in SERPs because Google prioritises user experience. Therefore, optimising these metrics to increase your visibility on SERPs is in your best interest.

What are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals focus on three main metrics:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - This measures the loading performance of a webpage. It reports the render time of the largest image or text block seen in a viewport. Google recommends your LCP to be within 2.5 seconds.

First Input Delay (FID) - This one measures interactivity and gauges the time taken for elements on a webpage to become interactive for users. Ideally, this should be less than 100 milliseconds. 

Note: FID will be replaced by Interaction to Next Paint (INP) by March 2024 - FID only accounts for the first interaction on a webpage. INP will consider all interactions and assess responsiveness based on all interactions, such as clicks, key presses, or taps on a touchscreen. An INP score of below 200 milliseconds is considered a good rating by Google.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - CLS gauges the visual stability of a webpage. It quantifies how much the content shifts around during the loading period. You should aim for a score of less than 0.1 for this metric.

Improving these metrics will help you rank higher on SERPs and improve the overall user experience on your website. A website with a faster page load speed will also help to improve the average bounce rate, which is especially important on a landing page.

How important are Core Web Vitals for ecommerce?

Core Web VItals are extremely important when trying to provide the best possible browsing experience for visitors.

Fast load times, smooth interactions, and visual stability while scrolling are key to retaining visitors and reducing bounce rates. Most visitors won’t tolerate a webpage that takes too long to load or feels clunky to interact with, so you need your website to live up to the ever-increasing expectations of shoppers.

If you rely on organic traffic for your ecommerce store, good Google Core Web Vitals scores promote better rankings on SERPs, helping you increase visibility.

Overall, Core Web Vitals should be a priority for any ecommerce business.

How to measure Core Web Vitals for your website

There are a few ways you can measure the Core Web Vitals of your web pages, but we’re going to discuss the two most popular and easy to use.

Google Search Console

You can access Core Web Vitals reports from your Google Search Console which is used to highlight the metrics you need to optimise. 

Accessing this is easy: after logging in, look for Core web vitals on the left-hand side, underneath the Experience heading. 

PageSpeed Insights

The PageSpeed Insights (PSI) tool can measure the user experience of a web page on both mobile and desktop. You’ll also see suggestions for how you can improve.

PSI reports on LCP, FID, CLS, and other metrics, showing you how your Core Web Vitals are doing. 

PSI also has a ‘Core Web Vitals assessment’ - you need to be in the 75th percentile for all three metrics to pass this assessment. This is a good way of benchmarking your website’s Core Web Vitals.

How to start improving your Core Web Vitals

We’ve put together some tips on improving your Core Web Vitals and optimising your website, helping you go from a high bounce rate to a low one.

Improving your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

• Optimise your images - you can compress and resize images to improve load speed. The WEBP file type offers a good level of compression while still maintaining quality.

• Use Critical CSS - this involves putting the CSS necessary to load the web page in the head tag, improving performance.

• Remove unnecessary code - unoptimised and unnecessary code on your website can cause loading speed issues. Minifying and compressing your code can help rectify this.

• Upgrade your server hosting plan - if you’ve been paying for a cheap server hosting plan, this could be a factor for scoring low on the LCP assessment. 

Improving your First Input Delay (FID)

• Optimise your JavaScript code - Get rid of non-critical scripts and unnecessary JavaScript code to improve page interactivity and speed.

• Lazy loading - leveraging lazy loading options for images and off-screen elements helps expedite image rendering.

• Browser caching - You can implement caching strategies for static assets. This will help to reduce server load and speed up future page loads for returning visitors.

Improving your Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

• Stable sizing for elements - set explicit dimensions for elements like images or ads to prevent sudden layout adjustments during loading.
• Preload fonts and stylesheets - ensuring the early loading of crucial fonts and stylesheets will help to maintain consistent rendering.
• CSS animations - consider using CSS animations and transitions instead of JavaScript to avoid unexpected layout disruptions.
• Monitor layout shifts - regularly analysing and tracking your CLS metrics with a tool like PageSpeed Insights can help you identify instability issues and rectify them quickly.

Improving Core Web Vitals and keeping bounce rate low for landing pages

Working to improve your Core Web Vitals is a time-consuming task. But, if you need to lower your bounce rate and improve conversions on your product detail pages, what can you do?

Bidnamic Discovery Pages are dynamic landing pages built with the Google Shopping journey in mind. Our product detail pages are superfast loading, with a page weight of less than 500KB and a load speed of less than three seconds, minimising the chance of bounce and improving the user experience.

Our Discovery Pages not only provide you with fast-loading pages without the strain of doing it yourself but also use AI technology to provide relevant product recommendations above the fold, increasing your chance of conversions. 

Discover how Appalachian Outfitters increased their conversion rate by 11% with Discovery Pages, to take a closer look at how our advanced landing pages work.