As a BigCommerce store owner, a fast, smooth website is critical for happy customers and increased sales. Google claims Core Web Vitals is a ranking factor, so it is important to have your best foot forward with improving the CWV metric. SEO Locale can help improve your national SEO campaign, if you are looking for an agency to handle your digital marketing needs. However, improving Core Web Vitals in BigCommerce can seem complicated. This guide simplifies these metrics and provides actionable steps to boost your BigCommerce site speed. We’ll explain how to improve core web vitals in BigCommerce and increase your conversion rate.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are metrics Google uses to measure user experience on your BigCommerce website. They focus on loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability during page load. Consider them Google’s guidelines for a positive visitor experience, influencing search engine ranking.
Why Core Web Vitals Matter for BigCommerce
Google began using site speed as a ranking factor in 2010. They intensified this in 2018, penalizing slow mobile sites. Core Web Vitals are now a crucial part of page experience.
They join mobile-friendliness, safe browsing, HTTPS security, and minimal intrusive pop-ups. Optimizing your ecommerce site for these vitals is crucial for good search engine rankings. This will impact total blocking time, which you want to minimize.
Page speed directly affects sales; even a one-second delay can decrease conversions. Understanding how to improve core web vitals in BigCommerce is critical for improving response time and increasing sales for ecommerce businesses.
The Core Web Vitals: A Breakdown
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP measures the loading time of the largest page element (image or text). A good LCP is 2.5 seconds or less. Large images are a common culprit for slow LCP, especially on BigCommerce websites. One strategy to use for better BigCommerce speed is lazy loading and implementing a content delivery network for better content delivery.
First Input Delay (FID)
FID measures a user’s first interaction time (like clicking a button). A good FID is under 100 milliseconds. Sites with low FID and INP often convert better. Addressing FID is important for exploring content as it affects a website’s interactivity, thus directly impacting conversion rates.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS measures how much elements shift during page load. A good CLS is 0.1 or less. Unstable elements frustrate users, impacting conversions and SEO. Minimizing CLS, is essential for improved load times. This ensures visitors have good site experience, critical to reducing bounce rates.
How to Improve Core Web Vitals in BigCommerce
BigCommerce offers tools, but sometimes they’re not enough due to third-party JavaScript affecting the input delay and loading speed. Knowing how to improve core web vitals in BigCommerce involves several key optimization strategies for your BigCommerce store.
Optimize Your Images
Large images cause slow LCP on BigCommerce sites. Resize and compress images before uploading, without compromising quality. Utilize WebP format if applicable on your ecommerce businesses’s platform for smaller file sizes. Optimizing images helps improve your website’s loading speed.
Consider image dimensions and resolution. A smaller, optimized image might still be large if its dimensions are excessive. It is also important to understand how to interpret metrics like Largest Contentful Paint and total blocking time.
Leverage a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN uses strategically located servers (edge servers) to deliver content faster. This reduces the load on your web host, thus boosting website speed by optimizing content delivery. BigCommerce includes a CDN; make sure you’re utilizing it to increase site speed.
Minimize Third-Party Scripts
Third-party scripts from widgets and chatbots can increase FID. These scripts can load slowly if the third-party provider’s website is not speedy enough, as loading speed relies on connection speed. Use browser developer tools or WebPageTest to review scripts.
Remove any unnecessary scripts that are slowing your website or negatively impacting your FID. Regularly optimizing ecommerce sites ensures all elements of the pagespeed insights report are within acceptable limits, improving load time and contributing to a better user experience.
Streamline Your Theme
Themes can add extra code and images, slowing down LCP. Consider a modern, optimized theme like BigCommerce Cornerstone for your BigCommerce website. This will reduce unnecessary code, thereby decreasing load time.
Even comments within your CSS or JavaScript can cause bloat. If core web vitals suffer with one theme, consider alternative themes. Choosing the right theme is key to improving website speed and creating a seamless experience for customers.
Tools to Help
GTmetrix, Pingdom, and PageSpeed Insights offer detailed performance analyses for online stores. Use these tools to understand what elements require more speed optimization.
Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report shows real-world data. Understanding these tools can improve site speed by allowing you to address issues impacting FID, load times, layout shifts, visual stability, Largest Contentful Paint, cumulative layout shift and ultimately the performance core web vitals score of the site.
A Note about Core Web Vital Audits:
Core Web Vital audit scores can vary significantly across platforms (Wix, Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.). Conduct multiple checks over time. Look for consistent improvements rather than relying on single snapshots.
How to Track Your Progress
Regularly track your Core Web Vitals scores, paying attention to key pages like your homepage and category pages. Frequent monitoring, whether monthly, bi-weekly, or quarterly, allows you to connect score changes to website updates, aiding in your speed optimization efforts. This provides valuable feedback, especially in ecommerce, for improved loading speed, FID, and overall site experience.
Conclusion
Improving Core Web Vitals in BigCommerce is achievable. Just like in WordPress if you decided to use a ton of elements if you are using Elementor, it can slow down the page, make sure you are not overloading the page. Focus on image optimization, CDN usage, minimizing third-party scripts, and choosing a streamlined theme. Track your progress regularly for the best results.
By implementing these strategies, you will see improved metrics such as largest contentful paint, cumulative layout shift and first input delay which will also boost metrics like time to first byte and overall help speed up website for improved user experience.
