Why Core Web Vitals Important?

Google did a major update to their ranking algorithm this year which adds a ranking factor called page experience. Google first spoke about this major algorithm update back in May of 2020. You can see the information on this communication from Google at https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/05/evaluating-page-experience.html

Now it’s very important to understand that while this algorithm update and introduction to Core Web Vitals could change the ranking factors of your website and its contents, the main and most important ranking factor is still good content. Let us say that again… content is King and still the main ranking factor.

Let us say for example that your website is in a tie for a specific keyword and you have done a better job of being Google Page Experience compliant by passing your Core Web Vitals with flying colours, you will likely outrank the URL that you are tied with.

There is an ongoing trend with Google and their goal is to provide not only the most relevant search results when somebody does a search but to also provide a list of results of the websites that have the best user experience.

Measurements

At the moment, Lighthouse (google’s measurement tool) is using a mid-tier device – Moto G4 on a mid-tier network (3G). We will do the same and measure your homepage plus a few other important pages. We use an assortment of tools, including GTMetrix, Chrome Inspector, Pagespeed Insights and Lighthouse.

We optimize your homepage only. These optimizations carry across to other pages as well. But individual attention to the page – looking at every widget, plugin and script loaded – will be spent on homepage only. 

Guaranteed Core Web Vitals Passing!

This is where it all comes together. Passing Google’s Core Web Vitals is a MUST if you want to achieve a great Page Experience. We will guarantee that you pass with flying colours on all of your site mock-up content categories. This means you will be able to run all of your site mock-up URLs through the Google Page Insights tool and see that they all meet a passing score for Core Web Vitals.

Optimization includes

  • optimizing and delivering images from a CDN, in webp format
  • pre-loading the first large content piece/hero image
  • lazy-loading as much as possible below the fold
  • pre-loading as much as possible above the fold
  • prevent javascript and styles from blocking page load
  • caching 
  • working with host and CDN to ensure best caching at the server /DNS level
  • install fonts locally and use system font stack as fall-back

These optimizations are performed on the live site. Should you wish to see this on a staging site first, that is available for a $149 add-on. Simply select that option at the end of the form below.

Limitations

We cannot control things like the number of fonts, the use of extra widgets or unique media-query widgets, bloated themes & page builders, excessive plugins, and hosting delays. If you suspect your site is plagued by any of these, contact us via email at prospeedguy@gmail.com and talk to us. We’d love to help.

Our Advanced Speed Fix Service goal is as fast as possible.

On good quality hosting most sites will load under 1 second which is the magical mark where page loads begin to feel instant. As part of this service, we can optionally move you to a dedicated host at Cloudways (additional monthly costs for hosting apply).

With this service, we also speed test up to 100 pages on your site (not just the homepage).

We STRONGLY recommend the purchase of the paid $20/month version of Cloudflare along with their Argo performance routing feature especially if you’re targeting a worldwide audience. Argo starts at $5/month.

How To Get Started?

If you’re ready to get started, hit the Get Started button and complete the form to initiate the speed optimization process.

Once we get your email we will reach you as soon as possible typically in 24 hours and you will get a shortlist of questions we need to be answered in order for us to start working on your site.

Once the answers are complete, our team will confirm we have all the logons and information we need to get started, will complete an initial site backup and then get started with your optimization!

Most optimizations will take somewhere between 5-7 business days to complete BUT in some cases where you have an extremely high number of images (large sites with 1000s of images may take 1-2 days alone to compress images) or where we need additional logons, this may take a few days longer.

Have a Question? Send Us an Enquiry

If you’re not sure whether this is a good fit for you, email us at prospeedguy@gmail.com or request a FREE site speed audit from the homepage and one of the team will review your site and advise what’s possible. 

Our Business Essentials Service gets all the latest speed optimization best practices in place without breaking the bank.

The service is designed for local and small business sites who want a faster loading experience and have a tight budget but don’t necessarily need their site loading as fast as humanly possible, “fast enough” will do. It also works well for brand new site builds that need speed optimization implemented.

This service typically suits websites that have had little to no speed optimization work performed on their site before and the site is noticeably slow to load taking several seconds to switch between pages.

With this service, we do a general sitewide optimization that checks all the current best speed optimization best practices. If you scroll down the page you’ll see the work performed and components provided with this service.

Our Business Essentials Service gets all the latest speed optimization best practices in place without breaking the bank.

Site Speed Metrics & What To Expect With This Service

Ideally we want our speed timings looking something like below and that’s what we aim for with this service. If you’re not sure where your site is right now, run your site through Google PSI test tool to get a baseline.

  • TTFB (time to first byte) 0.1-0.2 seconds (this is where is should be in the country where the site is hosted, 0.2-0.5 internationally)
  • FCP (first contentful paint) which is the start of the site render at or under 1.5 seconds
  • LCP (largest contentful paint), the end of the site render, under 2.5 seconds but ideally as close to the LCP as possible, generally within 1 second of the LCP is fast
  • Load time under 3 seconds
  • Fully loaded time can vary a lot depending on the third party code being used. Generally we’d expect to see it 1-2 second higher than the load time but this largely depends on the type of site, for example with a Woocommerce site this could easily be 3-5 seconds higher depending on the marketing code in use. The more marketing tools and third party code you use, the higher this number will be.

Hitting these speed timings will have the site passing Google’s core web vitals metrics in most cases and feeling fast. With this service, we use tool Google PSI test tool to measure site speed.

Note that not all sites can achieve the speed timings above. Videos and video backgrounds as well as image heavy sites may struggle to achieve the FCP and LCP times we’re aiming for simply because these heavy images and videos are slow to download and work the browser hard.

Here are the key components included in this service:

  • Browser Caching Configuration & Tuning
  • Page Caching Configuration & Tuning
  • CSS & Javascript (JS) Optimization, Tuning, Minification & Combining As Supported By Your Theme
  • Database Optimization, Cleanup & Scheduled Maintenance Implementation
  • 301 Redirect Optimization
  • Before and After Backups (using Blogvault)
  • .HTACCESS File Optimization
  • Plugin Review & Pruning As Required
  • Server Compression Tuning As Required
  • HTTPS Implementation for HTTP2 Protocol Support AND Better SEO (if you’re not already on HTTPS)
  • PHP 7.x Upgrade
  • Cloudflare CDN Setup & Implementation for Lightning Fast Worldwide Load Times & Fast DNS Hosting (optional but strongly recommended)

  • DNS Record Optimization & Tuning For Speed
  • Google Tag Manager Setup & Implementation (optional but strongly recommended if you have Livechat)
  • Livechat Lazy Loading Configuration
  • Image & Video Lazy Loading Configuration (if appropriate for your theme)
  • Advanced Image Compression and Optimization With Support For .Webp Next Generation Image File Format
  • WordPress General Best Practices Review & Implementation
  • Advanced Optimization – Page Prefetching & Just In Time Preloading
  • Hosting Migration Included (if necessary, optional)
  • Firewall & Security Hardening Implementation (optional)

There are some elements we don’t include in this service and it’s
not suitable for all types of sites:

  • Not Suitable for Enterprise or Mission Critical Sites (see our consult service)
  • Consult Call Not Included (see our Consult service)
  • We don’t focus on GTMetrix or Pagespeed Insights Scores with this service
  • We focus only on homepage speed with this service, if there’s other pages you want to focus on take a look at our Advanced service.
  • Changes are made to the live site – if you need changes made to staging please see our Consult Service
  • Not Suitable for Enterprise or Mission Critical Sites (see our consult service)
  • Consult Call Not Included (see our Consult service instead)

Optional Hosting Migration Included

On poor quality hosting most sites will struggle to hit the timings we listed above. Poor quality hosts include Godaddy, Hostgator, Bluehost and any host that is part-owned by a company called EIG (Endurance International Group), one of the biggest hosting companies worldwide. These hosts are all built to be cheap, not fast and site speed can vary dramatically on these hosts.

Hosts without HTTP2 protocol support may also struggle to hit the load times above. This protocol was released in 2015 and all modern, good quality web hosts should support this. If your host doesn’t support this protocol typically it means they’re running old or outdated infrastructure.

Without getting into the tech specs, this protocol speeds up how quickly files can be downloaded from your web server. Generally, HTTP2 will make a site 30-100% faster vs the previous HTTP 1.1 protocol. Our SiteSpeedBot.com tool will test for HTTP2 protocol support.

As part of this service, we can optionally move you to a dedicated host at Cloudways who is the hosting provider we typically recommend. They offer dedicated servers running a speed optimized server stack with an easy to use interface – you’re getting the power of a full server from just $10 USD/month.

If you want to give them a try yourself, signup at their website and use the coupon code FAST HOSTING for $25 credit which is approximately 2.5 months free on their base plans.

This service is our entry-level service best suited for local and small business websites that are slow and want to load “fast enough” and for brand new site builds that need baseline speed optimization work performed.

This service is not ideal for the types of sites or goals below, instead, take a look at our Advanced & Consult Services:

  • Woocommerce sites with moderate to high traffic
  • Enterprise or mission-critical sites
  • Sites where work needs to be done on a staging site before going live
  • Sites where the goal is a high Pagespeed Insights score or where “as fast as possible” is the goal
  • Membership sites
  • Sites running Ezoic ad platform