How to fix core web vitals of WordPress websites

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure the performance and user experience of a website. To check your website score click here. To fix the core web vitals of a WordPress website, you will need to optimize the performance, security, and user experience of your site. There are several steps you can take to improve the core web vitals of your WordPress site:

Use a lightweight and well-coded theme:

Using a lightweight and well-coded theme can help improve the core web vitals of a WordPress website because it can reduce the amount of time it takes for the website to load. A theme that is optimized for performance and has clean code will be more efficient and require fewer resources to run, which can improve the loading speed of the WordPress website.

In addition to improving the loading speed of the website, a well-coded theme can also improve the stability and security of the site. A theme with poorly written code can cause errors and conflicts that can slow down the WordPress website and make it vulnerable to security threats.

By using a lightweight and well-coded theme, you can help improve the core web vitals of your WordPress website and provide a better experience for your users. It is important to carefully research and choose a theme that meets these criteria and is regularly updated to ensure that it continues to perform well and provide the best possible experience for your users.

Optimize images

Large images can significantly slow down your WordPress website, so it is important to optimize them by compressing them and using the correct file format.

Reduce loading time: Large, unoptimized images can significantly slow down the loading speed of your WordPress website. By optimizing your images, you can reduce their file size and improve the loading speed of your site.

Improve user experience: Faster loading times lead to a better user experience. If your WordPress website takes too long to load, users may become frustrated and leave, leading to a high bounce rate. Optimizing your images can help improve the user experience by making your website load faster.

Improve SEO

Search engines like Google use page loading speed as a ranking factor, so a faster-loading website is more likely to rank higher in search results. Optimizing your images can help improve your website’s loading speed and, in turn, its SEO.

There are several ways to optimize images for a WordPress website:

Optimize images

Image compression reduces the file size of an image without reducing its quality. You can use a plugin like WP Smush or a tool like TinyPNG to compress your images.

Use the correct file format: Different file formats have different uses and can result in different file sizes. For example, WebP, AVIF, and JPEG are good choices for images, while PNG is better for graphics with transparent backgrounds.

Properly size images: Make sure that the images you use on your website are the correct size. Resizing an image in HTML or CSS can result in distorted images and slower loading times.

Enable caching

Enabling caching allows your WordPress website to store static resources in the visitor’s browser, which can improve the loading speed of your site. When a user visits your website, the browser has to request resources such as images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files from the server. This process takes time and can slow down the loading speed of your website.

Caching allows the browser to store these resources locally in the user’s computer or device. When the user navigates to a different page on your website or returns to your website at a later time, the browser can load the cached resources instead of requesting them again from the server. This can significantly improve the loading speed of your WordPress website.

There are several types of caching that you can enable on your WordPress website:

Browser caching

This allows the visitor’s browser to store static resources locally. You can enable browser caching by adding specific code to your .htaccess file or using a plugin like W3 Total Cache.

Server-side caching: This allows the server to store a copy of the website’s pages and resources, which can be served to the user without the need to regenerate them every time the page is requested. You can enable server-side caching by using a plugin like W3 Total Cache or WP Rocket.

Object caching

This allows the server to store the results of database queries and other complex operations, which can be served to the user without the need to run the queries again. You can enable object caching by using a plugin like W3 Total Cache or Memcached.

Enabling caching can significantly improve the core web vitals of your WordPress website by reducing the time it takes for the website to load. However, it is important to note that caching can also cause problems if it is not properly configured, so it is important to test your website after enabling caching to make sure that it is functioning correctly.

Use a content delivery network (CDN)

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of servers that are located in different parts of the world. When a visitor accesses your website, the CDN delivers the static resources (such as images and JavaScript files) to the visitor from the server that is closest to their location. This can significantly improve the loading speed of your WordPress website, especially for visitors who are located far from your server.

Using a CDN can also help to reduce the load on your server, which can improve the overall performance of your website. Additionally, CDNs can provide added security for your website by protecting against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other security threats.

In terms of core web vitals, using a CDN can help to improve the loading speed of your website, which is an important factor in the “First Contentful Paint” and “Time to Interactive” metrics. A faster loading speed can lead to a better user experience and higher scores for these metrics.

Optimize your database

Optimizing your database can help improve the core web vitals of your WordPress website by reducing the time it takes for your website to load. When a visitor accesses your website, the server needs to retrieve the requested information from the database. If the database is cluttered with unnecessary data, it can take longer for the server to find and retrieve the requested information, which can slow down the loading speed of your WordPress website.

By optimizing your database, you can reduce the amount of unnecessary data that is stored in it, which can improve the speed at which the server can retrieve information. This can result in a faster loading speed for your website, which is one of the core web vitals that Google measures.

There are several ways you can optimize your database in WordPress:

Delete old data: Over time, your database can accumulate data that is no longer needed, such as spam comments and old revisions of posts. You can use a plugin like WP-Optimize to delete this old data and free up space in your database.

Repair and optimize tables: Your database consists of tables that store different types of data, such as posts, comments, and user data. You can use a plugin like WP-DB Manager to repair and optimize these tables, which can improve the performance of your database.

Use a database management plugin: A plugin like Adminer or PHPMyAdmin can help you manage your database by allowing you to view, edit, and delete data directly from the WordPress dashboard.

By regularly optimizing your database, you can improve the performance of your website and provide a better experience for your users.

Use lazy loading

Lazy loading is a technique that delays the loading of images and other resources until they are needed. When a user visits a webpage, only the resources that are visible on the screen are loaded initially. As the user scrolls down the page, the rest of the resources are loaded as they come into view.

This can help improve the loading speed of a WordPress website by reducing the amount of data that needs to be loaded at the initial page load. Instead of loading all of the images and other resources on the page at once, only the ones that are necessary are loaded, which can reduce the time it takes for the page to become fully interactive.

In addition to improving the loading speed of a website, lazy loading can also help improve the core web vitals by reducing the amount of data that needs to be transferred over the network. This can lead to a faster Time to Interactive (TTI) and a better overall user experience.

To implement lazy loading on a WordPress website, you can use a plugin like Lazy Load or a3 Lazy Load. Alternatively, you can also use native lazy loading in modern browsers by using the loading attribute on images and other resources.

Minimize the use of plugins

Using too many plugins on a WordPress website can slow down the loading speed of the site and negatively impact the core web vitals. This is because each plugin adds additional code and resources to your website, which can increase the size of your pages and the amount of time it takes for them to load.

By minimizing the use of plugins, you can reduce the number of resources that your website has to load, which can improve the loading speed and overall performance of your site. It is important to only use the plugins that are absolutely necessary for your website and to regularly review the plugins you have installed to ensure that they are still necessary and do not cause any performance issues.

In addition to improving the loading speed of your website, minimizing the use of plugins can also help improve the security of your site. This is because plugins can sometimes have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, so the fewer plugins you have installed, the fewer potential security risks you will have to worry about.

Enable Gzip compression

Gzip compression is a method of compressing the files on your website to reduce the size of the data that needs to be transferred between the server and the user’s browser. By enabling Gzip compression, you can improve the loading speed of your WordPress website by reducing the amount of time it takes for the browser to download the website’s files.

To enable Gzip compression, you can add the following code to your .htaccess file:

# compress text, html, javascript, css, xml:
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/plain
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/html
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE text/css
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/xhtml+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/rss+xml
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/javascript
AddOutputFilterByType DEFLATE application/x-javascript

And we add the below code to enable mod_gzip,

<ifModule mod_gzip.c>
mod_gzip_on Yes
mod_gzip_dechunk Yes
mod_gzip_item_include file \.(html?|txt|css|js|php|pl)$
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^application/x-javascript.*
mod_gzip_item_include mime ^text/.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude rspheader ^Content-Encoding:.*gzip.*
mod_gzip_item_exclude mime ^image/.*
mod_gzip_item_include handler ^cgi-script$
</ifModule>

You can also use a plugin like Gzip Ninja Speed Compression to enable Gzip compression on your WordPress website.

Enabling Gzip compression can help improve the core web vitals of your website by reducing the time it takes for the page to load, which can improve the overall user experience of your site.

Use a lightweight, well-coded plugin for contact forms: Using a lightweight contact form plugin can help improve the loading speed of your WordPress website.

Optimize your WordPress website for mobile devices

With more and more people using their phones to browse the internet, it is important to optimize your WordPress website for mobile devices. This can include using a responsive design, minimizing the use of pop-ups, and making sure that your WordPress website loads quickly on mobile devices.

Use a security plugin: A security plugin can help protect your WordPress website from hackers and other security threats.

Keep your WordPress website and plugins up to date: It is important to keep your WordPress website and all of its plugins up to date to ensure that you are getting the latest security updates and performance improvements.

By following these steps, you can significantly improve the core web vitals of your WordPress WordPress website and provide a better experience for your users.

We can help you fix the core web vitals of your WordPress website

To improve the core web vitals of your WordPress website, it may be necessary to experiment with different combinations of techniques and tools. There is no one-size-fits-all solution that works for all websites, so you may need to try a variety of approaches to find what works best for your specific site. This could include using different themes, optimizing images and other media, enabling caching, using a CDN, or any number of other tactics. It may take some trial and error to find the combination that works best for your website, so be prepared to experiment and make adjustments as needed.