Tips for Better WordPress Core Vitals in 2024

WordPress Core web vitals are one of the most important aspects of website performance. They are a set of measures that Google uses to evaluate the quality of a user’s experience on a website, focusing on three key areas: how fast a page loads, how quickly it becomes interactive, and how stable the layout is while loading. These factors also affect search engine rankings.

WordPress has significantly improved in handling these Core Web Vitals since 2021. This improvement is evident on both mobile and desktop versions. In the latter part of 2023, WordPress introduced version 6.3, which enhanced image loading, and version 6.4, which improved website interactivity. These advancements have set the stage for even better performance in 2024, especially with three major updates on the horizon.

However, there are still challenges ahead. At White Label Agency, we’ve noticed that many agencies managing WordPress sites are finding it challenging to keep up with these Core Web Vitals. This struggle is partly due to changes Google made to its search algorithm in 2023, which altered how these metrics are evaluated.

Drawing from our experience working with over 600 digital agencies, we’re here to guide you through the essential strategies to ensure your WordPress sites excel in Core Web Vitals in 2024. Let’s dive into the key steps to optimize your website for better performance.

What are Core Vitals?

WordPress Core Vitals are a group of metrics that Google uses to evaluate the quality of a user’s experience on a webpage. They focus on three main areas:

• Loading Performance (Largest Contentful Paint – LCP): This metric measures how fast the main content of a page loads. A good user experience requires that the LCP occurs within 2.5 seconds from the start of the page loading.
• Interactivity (First Input Delay – FID): This metric measures how quickly a page becomes interactive. For a good user experience, a page should have an FID of less than 100 milliseconds.
• Visual Stability (Cumulative Layout Shift – CLS): This metric measures how stable the page is as it loads, specifically looking at whether elements on the page shift around. A page should aim for a CLS of less than 0.1 to ensure a good user experience.

Improving Core Vitals

After an in-depth interview with our head of production Natalia, I’ve gathered key insights into optimizing WordPress sites, reflecting our extensive experience from managing over 600+ clients. We’ve covered crucial aspects of improving WordPress core vitals, so let’s take a look:

Optimize WordPress Hosting

Selecting a hosting provider specialized in WordPress, like WP Engine, is essential for optimal website performance. WP Engine provides hosting environments finely tuned for WordPress, leading to faster loading times. Reliable uptime with WP Engine also means your website is always available, ensuring a smooth user experience. This benefits user satisfaction and positively impacts your site’s search engine rankings.

Light Themes and Custom Coding

For optimal WordPress performance, it’s important to choose light themes that are efficiently coded and free from excessive features. Such themes help streamline your site’s performance by reducing load times and enhancing responsiveness. Additionally, incorporating custom coding can further improve your site’s efficiency by removing unnecessary elements, giving you more control over its functionality and speed, which directly benefits WordPress Core Vitals.

Optimize Images

To optimize images on your WordPress site, use modern, efficient image formats like WebP. Compressing images helps to reduce their file size without sacrificing quality. Also, make sure to resize the images so they fit well, especially on mobile device displays, ensuring your site remains efficient and user-friendly.

Lazy Loading

Incorporate lazy loading on your WordPress site to postpone the loading of images and resources until they come into view. This technique reduces the initial load time of your site, positively influencing the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric, which is crucial for a faster and more efficient user experience.

Some Additional Tips

Caching

Implementing caching on your WordPress site with plugins like WP Rocket helps store static content such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files. This strategy significantly speeds up your website for returning visitors by reducing the need for their browsers to reload these resources, thus improving the overall speed and efficiency of your site.

Regular Monitoring and Optimization

Regularly monitoring and optimizing your WordPress site is crucial. Use tools like Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights to keep track of your site’s Core Web Vitals. Google Search Console helps you understand your site’s search performance and identify any issues, while PageSpeed Insights provides analysis and recommendations to improve your web page’s loading speed and user experience. Staying updated with these tools allows you to address performance issues promptly, ensuring your site remains efficient and ranks well in search results.

Eliminate Render-Blocking Elements

To improve your website’s loading speed, it’s important to identify and minimize JavaScript and CSS that hinder rendering. Reducing these render-blocking elements can be achieved through minification, which decreases the file sizes and thus speeds up load times. Additionally, be cautious with WordPress plugins, as some may add extra files that can further block rendering and slow down your site.

Leverage a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can significantly improve your website’s loading times by hosting your files on a global network of servers. When a user visits your site, the CDN serves the content from the nearest server, reducing the distance the data has to travel. This is especially beneficial for websites with an international audience, as it ensures faster access regardless of the visitor’s location.

Upcoming 2024 Update: Transition from FID to INP in Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals were introduced by Google in early 2020, providing essential metrics for evaluating web page quality. Recently, an important update was announced: starting in March 2024, the Core Web Vitals will undergo a significant change. The First Input Delay (FID) metric, which measures page responsiveness, will be replaced by Interaction to Next Paint (INP). This change is a result of the Chrome Team’s efforts to refine how user experience is assessed.

INP was initially an experimental metric introduced in May 2022. It offers a broader, more detailed view of user interactions compared to FID. While FID focuses on the delay in processing the first user input, INP assesses the responsiveness throughout the entire interaction, capturing a fuller picture of the user experience.

For website owners and developers, this means adapting to the new metric. Google Search Console will start including INP in its Core Web Vitals report later this year, preparing users for the switch in March 2024. While improvements made for FID will serve as a good foundation, focusing on INP will be crucial for enhancing page responsiveness. This aligns with Google’s ongoing commitment to ensuring a high-quality user experience, which is a key factor in search success. However, it’s important to remember that a great page experience involves more than just WordPress Core Vitals, and good performance in these metrics does not guarantee high search rankings.

Get ready for 2024 with WLA

As we step into 2024, our extensive experience and deep expertise position us uniquely to embrace new trends, updates, and challenges with confidence and expertise. Ready to advance your agency with the right solutions for 2024 and beyond? Reach out to our sales team at White Label Agency. We offer a range of different services, including website development, maintenance, and dedicated developer rental.