Google is sharing an updated set of recommendations for optimizing Core Web Vitals to help you decide what to prioritize when time is limited.
Core Web Vitals are three metrics measuring loading time, interactivity, and visual stability.
Google considers these metrics essential to providing a positive experience and uses them to rank websites in its search results.
Throughout the years, Google has provided numerous suggestions for improving Core Web Vitals scores.
Although each of Google’s recommendations is worth implementing, the company realizes it’s unrealistic to expect anyone to do it all.
If you don’t have much experience with optimizing website performance, it can be challenging to figure out what will have the most significant impact.
You may not know where to start with limited time to dedicate to improving Core Web Vitals. That’s where Google’s revised list of recommendations comes in.
In a blog post, Google says the Chrome team spent a year trying to identify the most important advice it can give regarding Core Web Vitals.
The team put together a list of recommendations that are realistic for most developers, applicable to most websites, and have a meaningful real-world impact.
Here’s what Google’s Chrome team advises.
Optimizing Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric measures the time it takes for the primary content of a page to become visible to users.
Google states that only about half of all websites meet the recommended LCP threshold.
These are Google’s top recommendations for improving LCP.
Make Sure The LCP Resource Is Easily Found In The HTML Source
According to the 2022 Web Almanac by HTTP Archive, 72% of mobile webpages have an image as the main content. To improve LCP, websites must ensure images load quickly.
It may be impossible to meet Google’s LCP threshold if a page waits for CSS or JavaScript files to be fully downloaded, parsed, and processed before the image can start loading.
As a general rule, if the LCP element is an image, the image’s URL should always be discoverable from the HTML source.
Make Sure The LCP Resource Is Prioritized
In addition to having the LCP resource in the HTML code, Google recommends prioritizing it and not delaying behind other less critical resources.
Even if you have included your LCP image in the HTML source using a standard tag, if there are several
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