How to improve Core Web Vitals in your Laravel application?

By Lucid Softech IT Solutions | Laravel,  05 Apr 2023

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that Google uses to measure the user experience of a web page. These metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). In May 2021, Google announced that Core Web Vitals will be a ranking factor in search results starting in June 2021. This means that it’s important for web developers to optimize their websites to improve Core Web Vitals.

In this blog post, we’ll explore some tips and best practices for improving Core Web Vitals in your Laravel application.

1. Optimize Images:

Large images can slow down your website, which can negatively impact Core Web Vitals. To optimize images in your Laravel application, you can use tools like TinyPNG or Imagick to compress and resize images before uploading them to your server. You can also use the responsive image feature in Laravel to automatically serve the appropriate image size based on the user’s device.

2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN):

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can help improve LCP by serving content from servers that are geographically closer to the user. This reduces the time it takes to load content, which can improve Core Web Vitals. You can use services like Cloudflare or Amazon CloudFront to set up a CDN for your Laravel application.

3. Minimize JavaScript and CSS:

Excessive JavaScript and CSS can increase page load times, which can negatively impact Core Web Vitals. To optimize your Laravel application, you can use tools like Laravel Mix to minify and concatenate your JavaScript and CSS files. You can also use lazy loading to delay the loading of non-critical scripts until they’re needed.

4. Optimize Web Fonts:

Web fonts can also impact LCP and CLS, as they need to be downloaded before they can be displayed on the page. To optimize web fonts in your Laravel application, you can use services like Google Fonts, which use a CDN to serve fonts more efficiently. You can also use the font-display property in CSS to control how the font is displayed while it’s loading.

5. Use Cache:

Caching can improve LCP and FID by reducing the time it takes to load content and execute scripts. In Laravel, you can use the built-in caching mechanisms like Memcached or Redis, or use a third-party service like Cloudflare Workers to cache your content.

6. Monitor and Analyze:

Finally, it’s important to monitor and analyze your Core Web Vitals regularly to identify areas for improvement. You can use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to measure your website’s performance and identify areas for improvement. You can also use Laravel Telescope to monitor your application’s performance in real-time.

Conclusion:

Improving Core Web Vitals in your Laravel application is essential for providing a positive user experience and maintaining your search engine rankings. By optimizing images, using a CDN, minimizing JavaScript and CSS, optimizing web fonts, using cache, and monitoring and analyzing your performance, you can improve your Core Web Vitals and provide a fast and responsive website to your users.