Google announced some time ago that they will be introducing a new set of criteria for SERP (Search Engine Results Page), those listings of mainly organic results that everyone wants to be at the top of.
And the name for this new set of criteria is Core Web Vitals, due to be introduced in May 2021. Of course, factors such as mobile friendly, safe browsing, HTTPS security and intrusive interstitial guidelines will still all go towards a high ranking, but make no mistake core web vitals will have a significant effect on page result rankings.
Core Web Vitals
Google has 3 main indicators that you will potentially have to address:
- Largest Contentful Paint (Loading)
- First Input Delay (Interactivity)
- Cumulative Layout Shift (Page Stability)
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
The time it takes to load the largest element on the page – this is usually the main content.
First Input Delay (FID)
The time it takes before a user can interact with a page (scroll, click, fill in forms etc.)
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
This refers to page stability as it loads i.e. whether it shifts or jumps around?
Scoring
Each of the above criteria has an attached score:
For Largest Contentful Paint up to 2.5 seconds is good (green), up to 4 seconds needs attention (amber) and above 4 seconds is poor.
For First Input Delay up to 100ms is good (green), up to 300ms needs attention (amber) and above 300ms is poor.
For Cumulative Layout Shift up to 0.1 is good (green), up to 0.25 needs attention (amber) and above 0.25 is poor.
Testing your pages
Each of your pages will have to be tested individually and there are several ways you can do this, but one of the quickest is to use Google’s PageSpeed Insights page.
Simply type the web address of the page you want to test into the field and click Analyze.
Once the page has been analysed the scores will be displayed and you can start any remedial work that needs to be carried out on the page concerned. We’d recommend starting with the poorest scoring pages.
WordPress Websites
As users of the WordPress CMS for our websites we found some very interesting results.
The 3 biggest factors affecting page speeds were:
- Themes
- Page builders
- Sliders
Themes
All themes are NOT equal and especially when it comes to page loading times. For example, many themes use what are called frameworks, which sit on top of the WordPress framework and whilst they can make creating pages a lot simpler often the big sacrifice is speed.
Another factor with a theme that can affect speed is whether a theme has been developed with functionality built into the theme as opposed to placing the functionality in a plugin (the way it should be done). This is why our tests involving sites using the Divi theme performed particularly badly.
Page Builders
Again, not all page builders are created equal, some of the worst offenders being Elementor and Divi and even our own preferred page builder, Siteorigin, which is much leaner still slows down page speed considerably when compared to the Gutenberg editor built into WordPress.
I have to say that when Gutenberg first shipped with WordPress it was no match for the established page builders in terms of what could be achieved with page layout. However, having spent many hours recently revisiting the Gutenberg editor I can honestly say I am happy to work with it instead of a page builder. And the upside is that when combined with a lean theme the faster page loading speeds are staggeringly better. I’ve seen the same website using a page builder go from a score of 28 (poor) to a score of 97 (good) when Gutenberg and a lean theme have been used.
Sliders
Don’t use them! They really do slow a website down. Find another way to present your images – end of. I ran a test where with a slider the page scored 28 and without the slider the score went up to 51.
Plugins
There are thousands of plugins so testing even a fraction would be impossible, but I did test the Wordfence security plugin, because I use it on all the WordPress websites I look after. How much did it slow down the website? By 1 point – not an issue.
However, I would recommend testing all your plugins as it never hurts to review a website’s plugin usage from time to time. You never know, maybe not all your installed plugins are still necessary. Simply deactivate a plugin, then go the PageSpeed Insights page and run another test. If the score doesn’t change much, then reactivate the plugin.
You may find a plugin that does slow down page speeds but if it is essential to your website’s operation, then it will be a judgement call as to whether you keep it or find another alternative.
I know there is a lot a take in, so if you need any help or advice with regard to a WordPress website please contact Alex at alex@octagontech.com or on 01522 797520 for a chat.
Alex
Web Support
