The Google Web.dev team has shared a general guide to auditing and optimizing the main Internet site indicators (Core Web Vitals).
For each stage, a list of questions and recommended tools is offered to make the work as efficient as possible, says SearchEngines.
ABC Approach to Optimizing Core Web Vitals
A Google post describes an ABC approach that includes three steps:
- A – assessing the health of the site and identifying problems;
- B – debugging and page optimization;
- C – monitoring and continuous development.
A. Assessing and identifying problems
The specialists who carry out the audit are invited to answer the following questions:
- What is the site’s performance and what needs attention?
- Has the site situation improved or worsened recently?
- What pages, devices and metrics should be prioritized?
Recommended tools:
- PageSpeed Insights
This tool is recommended for evaluating user experience on specific pages. Developers can compare individual metrics to create a list of priority pages that need optimization.
After completing the research, you can move on to the next stage of the audit.
B. Debugging and Optimization
Google first recommends answering the following questions:
- What’s the best way to optimize these pages?
- What problems can be solved first?
- What fixes require further planning?
Recommended tools:
- Lighthouse
It’s the same tool used in PageSpeed Insights, but it’s also available in Chrome DevTools and on web.dev, notes NIXsolutions. Lighthouse helps you determine what changes you can make to improve the user experience.
In general, Lighthouse is a tool for identifying smaller optimizations before moving on to more advanced solutions.
- Web Vitals Extension
While Lighthouse measures metrics prior to page load and does not cover FIDs, the Web Vitals extension takes measurements while interacting with the page.
The tool also covers FID and CLS.
- Chrome DevTools
With this tool, you can observe the impact of layout offsets in real time, remove unused code, and test code changes.
If you make any changes, it is recommended that you start from step A again to measure the impact of these updates.
C. Monitoring and development
Once optimizations have been identified and implemented, it is important to continue to monitor performance and make further changes as needed.
According to Google research, most sites that improve performance start to see a decline within six months.
To avoid a rollback, you should carefully monitor the indicators and promptly respond to their deterioration.
Recommended tools:
- CrUX via BigQuery
- CrUX API
- PageSpeed Insights API
- Web-vitals.js
- Lighthouse-CI
According to Google, the proposed strategy will help identify bottlenecks and optimize Core Web Vitals, as well as plan further actions to maintain high site performance.
As a reminder, earlier this month Google shared tips for evaluating Page Experience signals that are not related to Core Web Vitals.