| Explore the complex relationship between ads and CWV scores and their influence on users’ page experiences. |
As a web owner or an SEO specialist, do you often ask yourself about your website health scores? Or, , have you ever wondered why some websites load lightning-fast while others seem to lag behind? The answer might lie in a set of metrics known as Core Web Vitals.
In this blog, we delve into the fundamentals of Core Web Vitals and how ads can impact CWV scores.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of key metrics that Google considers crucial for measuring users’ page experience.
According to Google, three main aspects of measuring the overall page experience are loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. Google collects “real-world” data from its users and gives a score for each of the above metrics. A score of “good” means you pass, while a score of “poor” or “need improvement” means your website fails the test.
To assess your site’s performance concerning Core Web Vitals, simply access the Core Web Vitals report within your Google Search Console account. You’ll find it conveniently located in the experience section.
How are Core Web Vitals scored?
Core Web Vitals are assessed based on real-world data or users’ actual experience with your pages.
These data are not simulated but are taken from genuine Google Chrome browser sessions.
What does it mean?
When it comes to Web Vitals, there are two types of data you can look at – field data and lab data.
Field data
It is collected from real users with their distinct device and network configurations. This data is obtained through the Chrome User Experience Report, or CrUX report for short, and provides valuable insights into users’ real interactions with your web pages.
Lab data
It is collected in a controlled setting with predefined device and network configurations, independent of real user engagement. This synthetic data simulates potential user interactions with your web pages.
Google measures the metrics using field data. However, it takes over 28 days to aggregate the data, which makes it difficult to see the result of your Core Web Vital optimization in these four weeks.
If you want to get a quick snapshot of your anticipated page experience, lab data, such as Lighthouse and Chrome Dev Tools, comes into the picture.
Three Components of Core Web Vitals
Google’s latest Core Web Vitals center around three key elements of user experience:
- Loading speed (assessed via Largest Contentful Paint)
- Interactivity (measured by Interaction to Next Paint)
- Visual stability (evaluated through Cumulative Layout Shift)
Mastering and enhancing these aspects are pivotal for enhancing user satisfaction.
Loading speed – Largest Contentful Paint
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a metric used to measure the speed of loading a web page. Specifically, it assesses the time it takes for the largest content piece on a page to load and become visible to the user. The largest content piece could be one of these:
- image
- video
- block-level element
This metric is important for user experience as it can affect how quickly users can start interacting with the page.
A fast LCP means the page loads quickly and all the content is in the viewpoint, while a slow LCP can affect users’ interaction and lead to increased bounce rates.
An ideal score of LCP is less than or equal to 2.5.
Interactivity- Interaction to Next Paint
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) is the newest Core Web Vitals metric that replaced First Input Delay (FID) on March 12, 2024. Both FID and INP measure the time between the user’s action and the web page’s response. However, FID assesses how quick the responsiveness of the browser is to the user’s first interaction, while INP counts it the whole time the user interacts on a web page.
The user’s interaction can be:
- Clicking on a button or a link
- Filling in the search field
- Choosing an option from menu
- Clicking playing/pause a video
INP is an essential metric for measuring the user experience on a website, as it directly affects how quickly users can interact with the page and how responsive the page feels to them.
A good INP score is under 200ms, and a poor INP score is over 500ms.
Visual Stability – Cumulative Layout Shift
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is a metric used to measure the visual stability of a webpage. In other words, it calculates the amount of unexpected layout shifts occurring on a page while it is loading. The CLS occurs when elements on a page move unexpectedly due to changes in the layout caused by late-loading resources.
Let’s say you’re browsing a webpage and want to navigate back to the previous page. You click the button but end up clicking something you don’t intend to and are directed to the wrong page. That’s frustrating.
Bad CLS can cause a poor user experience as it makes it difficult for users to interact with the page.
The lower the CLS score, the better the visual stability and user experience of the webpage.
More to discover
Cumulative Layout Shift: How to Optimize CLS?
Impacts of Ads on Core Web Vitals
It’s obvious for digital publishers monetizing from ads that ad display can take up to 30% of their page content. Having an improper allocation of ads can adversely affect your Core Web Vitals score.
Impact of Ads on LCP
Ads placed above the fold (ATF) or ads larger than other elements on the web page can affect the LCP score.
Websites that are running header bidding might also experience a high LCP score when it takes a long time to display ads due to the large number of bidders.
To solve that, you can display ads below the fold (BTF) to ensure ads load faster. Control your header bidding auction time so it can not impact loading speed.
Impact of Ads on INP
Responsive or video ads, especially those requiring user interaction, can detrimentally affect Interaction to Next Paint (INP). When third-party ad codes impede your webpage’s rendering or take too long to display the ad, it can lead to a high INP score.
For a recap, INP measures the duration between a page’s completion of loading and a user’s interaction with it, placing greater emphasis on post-load interaction. INP also accounts for a broader user journey, which includes factors such as overall loading time, ease of user interface, and the pivotal moment when interactivity truly blooms.
Impacts of Ads on CLS
Ads can contribute to the frameshift on a webpage. If the publisher hasn’t allocated sufficient space for the ad, it may displace the content. This could result in a poor user experience, as the content unpredictably moves, posing challenges for users to engage with the page.
To address this issue, we recommend following the below methods in particular cases.
Collapsing or expanding an ad slot when a display ad is called?
UseGoogle Ad Manager Historical report to predict the fill rate of ad slots. Ad spaces expected to be filled should be “expanded,” while those unlikely to be filled should be “collapsed.”
Delivering Fluid Ads on your website
Fluid ad slots don’t specify fixed ad sizes as they automatically adjust the ads to fit the ad creative. This leads to an unexpected layout shift because the publisher is unaware of the space size required for the ad.
To solve this:
- Add fluid sizes for ad slots situated out of the primary viewport, such as below the fold (BTF).
- Fetch the ad slot as soon as the user accesses the page, ensuring it’s already resized.
Adding multi-sized ad slots
Reserving adequate space can work for statistic ad slots, but not for multi-sized ones.
In this case, you can consider reserving space for the largest ad size or the ads most likely to be served.
Regularly checking and analyzing your Google Ad Manager historical report will help you understand the fill rate and reserve ad space accordingly.
With our Ad Layout Optimization, you can guarantee that Google Core Web Vitals won’t be negatively affected while maintaining a positive user experience. To enhance your ad experience and increase ad revenue, you can request a free demo to estimate the revenue uplift.
Tips to Increase Your CWV Scores
Now that you have a basic understanding of Core Web Vitals and the factors that can impact it, we’re going to share with you the best practices for enhancing your CWV scores.
Lazy Loading Images
Implementing lazy loading for images is an effective solution. It reduces page weight and accelerates rendering in browsers. Additionally, tailor image resolutions based on device types to avoid unnecessary high-resolution image loading.
Levegare a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Enhancing INP and LCP scores can be achieved by serving static assets via a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like AWS Cloudfront, ensuring quicker resource retrieval by browsers.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) enhances image availability by distributing them from locations close to users. Instead of serving images solely from a central server, a CDN maintains cached versions of images in various geographic locations, referred to as Points of Presence (POPs).
As your content is delivered from POPs at a close distance to the user rather than a server situated thousands of miles away, it results in significantly faster loading times.
Cut down page size
Heavy pages exceeding 80KB hinder LCP by slowing fetching and downloading. Trim unnecessary data fetched from the server to load only essential content for page rendering.
Improve LCP with NEXT-GEN image formats.
Formats like JPEG 2000, JPEG XR, and WebP offer superior compression and quality, leading to faster loading and reduced data usage. Convert images using available tools or establish a runtime image service for real-time format conversion, delivering optimized WebP images directly to browsers.
Minimize Render-Blocking Resources
Reducing CSS and JavaScript that block rendering is crucial. These resources delay the visual display of your page. Apply techniques like deferred or asynchronous loading to prioritize critical content, enhancing CWV scores.
Final thought
If you have read to this point, you might realize that Google Core Web Vitals offer publishers an avenue to address issues related to ad loading, ultimately leading to improvements in ad revenue. However, optimizing ads and enhancing CWV scores isn’t a simple task. It demands a profound understanding of both user experience and ad experience.
0 Comments