So, your WordPress site is so slow you could go out for coffee waiting for it to load. Google is not ranking you the way you want, and your Core Web Vitals are in the red. Don’t worry; you’re not alone. This is a struggle we have seen more and more. The good news is that you don’t have to sacrifice a beautifully laid-out website that speaks to your brand to get a passing score in your Core Web Vitals, and we are here to help you!
As much as you may love the look of your website, there are probably a couple of things you need to change. Sometimes, it’s not so much what you are doing; how you are doing it is the culprit. Other times, you may have gotten attached to something that is no longer standard practice, and it’s dragging you down.
Top ten things that reduce Core Web Vitals
Overloaded Sliders
Everyone jumped on the slider, also known as the carousel, bandwagon in the early 2000s. The problem is that it’s not the early 2000s anymore. You might think it looks incredible, and you’ve convinced yourself people will swipe through all 20 images to learn about your product, but here’s the thing: they won’t. Statistically, no one (especially on mobile) is sitting around saying, “Let me sit here and see all the things they want to highlight.” Instead, your slider is burning bandwidth faster than my car burns gasoline.
Each image adds to the load time, and sliders are terrible for mobile users who would instead scroll than wait. Sliders are also notoriously bad for accessibility and SEO. Don’t just take our word for it—the team at Yoast agrees with us. There are other great solutions, like an optimized static hero image or a short video, that you can change out to enhance your Core Web Vitals.
Videos Hardcoded into the Site
Like sliders, no one visits a website to watch a 3-minute video in its header. It’s even worse if that video is hardcoded on your site. Every time someone visits, your server gasps for air, trying to load your video. Consider the length of your video. A captivating 30 seconds is much more engaging than 3 minutes of rehash.
Uploading videos directly to your WordPress site isn’t the best choice. Instead, they can be hosted on a video platform like YouTube or Vimeo and embedded. Services like YouTube and Vimeo have the infrastructure to handle streaming, while your website doesn’t.
Unoptimized and Poorly Optimized Images
A high-resolution image from your camera or smartphone is great for hardcopy print projects like brochures or trade show booths, but it’s not so great for the web. We’ve seen images intended for branded bus advertising campaigns end up online, and the result was that the website was slower than a bus in midtown Manhattan traffic.
You can use plugins to fix your poorly optimized images retroactively. Pro tip: If you have really large images, you might have to compress them more than once. When planning for the future, upload images in WebP format, which is the way of the future. These images still look great and are lightweight, improving those Core Web Vitals.
Too Many Ads Can Affect Your Core Web Vitals
Ads are the lifeblood of many websites, and we are not saying you should eliminate them. However, it’s definitely a situation of less is more. No one wants to be assaulted by a video or pop-up after every paragraph.
Poorly placed ads ruin the user experience, leading to high bounce rates, not only because they can cause a slow loading site but just based on the video game-like bells and whistles coming at you from every angle. Consider how much value you get from ads in sidebars, headers, in-between paragraphs, and pop-ups. If your website feels like the funhouse at 6 Flags, it’s probably not what you were going for. Choose those ads and their placements wisely! Maybe hire a UX designer to give you options you’ve never considered.
Page Builders
WordPress has come far since the days of the classic editor. The native Block Editor now enables content creation options by utilizing drag-and-drop blocks and block patterns. Previously, this kind of drag-and-drop functionality was only achievable with page builders. However page builders can impact your Core Web Vitals.
Page builders have a downside. Every fancy animation, widget, and layout adds code, and suddenly, your page is calling 500 lines of CSS it doesn’t need. Why slow your site down with a page builder when the same features are now available in the default WordPress editor? Bonus: You’ll save on the page builder licensing fees as well. Need to migrate to the block editor? Ask us how the ThemeSwitcher Pro by WebDevStudios can come to your rescue.
Slow DNS Servers
Your DNS server is like the bouncer for your website. If it’s slow, nobody gets in quickly, and your website is all dressed up and has nowhere to go. It’s simply the adage, “You get what you pay for.” Using a low-budget DNS provider is akin to your site being powered by a 1950s Edsel instead of a modern hybrid.
Switch to a faster DNS service like Cloudflare or talk to your hosting provider about CDN options that might be available in your hosting plan. These services are not only faster but often include added security features, which are a nice bonus.
Excessive DOM Size
DOM is an acronym that stands for Document Object Model. It’s how a web browser represents a web page internally. If your DOM is bloated, your site has too many elements for the browser to handle efficiently.
What causes a bloated DOM? It could be any number of items, but we frequently see things like overly complex page layouts, too many nested elements, or that cursed slider with 20 images. Many things get added when a website has been around for a while, but nothing is taken away. Do some spring cleaning. Have a website audit to determine how to combat the bloat and get your Core Web Vitals in line.
Too Many Third-Party Scripts
Facebook Pixels. Google Analytics. An X feed. Instagram widgets. That cute widget you thought would be fun to make it look like it’s snowing in December or turn your cursor into a heart at Valentine’s Day. Each of these adds a third-party script, and every script slows down your page.
Ask yourself: Do you need all the items? Probably not. Keep the essentials, load them asynchronously, and cut the rest.
Plugin Bloat
“Oh, there’s a plugin for that!” Famous last words. Plugins are great but can also hurt your site’s performance if they aren’t updated, tested, and checked to see if they are overkill for what you are trying to accomplish. We once saw a case where three caching plugins were being used. This isn’t a case where bigger is better.
Audit your plugins. If you’ve got 30 plugins installed and only actively use five, it’s time for a spring cleaning. Bonus tip: Look for lightweight alternatives or all-in-one plugins to minimize load.
No Lazy Load
Lazy loading isn’t optional anymore—it’s a necessity. When you don’t lazy-load your images, videos, and ads, your site tries to load everything simultaneously. That’s like trying to eat a whole pizza in one bite.
Enable lazy loading for images, and if you’re running ads, use an ad network that supports lazy loading. Your page speed—and your visitors—will appreciate it.
The Bottom Line
Your Core Web Vitals don’t have to be terrible. Most of these issues are fixable with little effort (and a lot fewer over-the-top design choices). Simplify, optimize, and ditch the unnecessary fluff. Your website—and Google—will reward you. If you want some help with the heavy lifting, ask us, and we will help you out.