In our previous article, we unearthed what Google Core Web Vitals are and what they mean for the SEO ranking of your site.

This particular piece tackles how website owners and publisher can test and optimize their websites for Google Core Web Vitals.

Please note, these are solutions tailor-made for WordPress users. Ready? Let’s get right into it.

There are many test tools a site owner can use to test whether the performance of their site(s). However, for the Google Core Web Vitals test, we would use PageSpeed Insights, it’s the easiest tool you can use to test your Core Web Vitals score.

To perform this action, go to PageSpeed Insights website. A panel will pop up and prompt you to enter the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of your site and hit ANALYZE. See example in the screenshot below.

After running the analysis, the site will tell you whether your site has passed the Core Web Vitals test or not. Results are normally display in standard format.

From the following screenshot, you can see that the site only meets the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) shift as seen by the green colour, which means it becomes visually stable within 0.002 seconds after main content is displayed.  

Why does your site need to pass the Google Core Web Vitals?

As we mentioned in our previous article, Google will not rush to implement this major change within a short period of time.

But the most important aspect of the Google Core Web Vitals is the optimization of websites for a better user experience, in terms of speed and user-friendliness.

Also, the Google Core Web Vitals score will, in the long run, become one of the Search Engine Optimization ranking.

In a nutshell, the shift to this new phenomenon of search algorithm is unavoidable by site owners and publishers.

How to prepare your site for Google Core Web Vitals

Bracing up for the new phase of algorithm sounds like a daunting task, especially for beginners. However, it is not – only if a user refines a few aspects of their site.

For WordPress users, for whom this article was prepared, here is a basic guide to help you prepare for the upcoming update.

Web Hosting Optimization

Optimizing the hosting platform for your site can pay off tremendously. SiteGround is one of the expert recommendations available.

A hosting platform with optimized servers for WordPress gives your website the speed it needs to boost performance. SiteGround is also one of the companies officially recommended by WordPress.

SiteGround comes with a plugin called SG Optimizer. Installed by more than 1 million users, it automatically ensures performance enhancements and enables built-in caching.

What if you use another hosting platform like Naivacity, Hostinger, or Hostgator? This is where WP Rocket comes in handy.

WP Rocket is a premium WordPress caching plugin which allows users to simply set caching plugin on their sites without getting hands dirty doing the technical stuff.

Improving the Largest Contentful Paint Score

In the previous post, we defined Largest Contentful Paint as the largest content part within the viewport of a page. This could be a blog post, featured image, or an article text.

Improving your LCP is crucial because the quicker the content loads, the higher the LCP score and consequently better SEO ranking.

But how do you identify the content considered the largest by the test? You simply have to scroll down to the test results and expand the ‘Largest Contentful Paint element’ field.

You will be presented by elements considered for the Largest Contentful Paint score. This could be an image or text.

If it’s an image, replacing it with a smaller image or an image with lower file size and quality will go a long way to improve the LCP score. If it’s text, try breaking them into headings or paragraphs.

Improving First Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

These aspects of Google Core Web Vitals can be improved by two premium WordPress plugins, namely WP Rocket and Autoptimize.