Google's latest push for a faster, more usable web has been on many site owners' minds over the last year. As we all have learned, a good score with Google's Core Web Vitals promises a ranking boost - although we do expect any ranking gains will be minuscule, at least to begin with.

The vast majority of the sites we work on are powered by WordPress, which is a bit of a problem because the WordPress ecosystem didn't get the memo from Google that this stuff was important, and that makes improvement more difficult for us. While many solutions await WordPress, Theme and Plugin Developer's awakening to these issues, there are things we can do in the interim.

Most improvements we can make fall into 3 general categories...

• Weight - Weight, in the form of bytes transferred from the server to the browser, can be reduced to improve speed and efficiency. Every byte you can save improves your performance.
• Horsepower - Improvements in web server performance can have a major impact. Improvements such as caching, faster servers and improved operating systems do help.
• User Interface - Core Web Vitals isn't just about performance and speed, it's also about usability. Minimizing Layout Shifts, Largest Content Paint and First Input Delay are all factors users do notice.

When you're working on your Core Web Vitals, consider the above three general categories. Let's look at some easy things to do that ca...