Core Web Vitals - What Matters Most
Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift drive both user experience and search rankings. For business sites, aim for LCP under 2.5s, FID under 100ms, and CLS under 0.1. Practical steps include server-side rendering for hero content, optimizing images and fonts, and deferring nonessential scripts.
Image Strategy that Balances Quality and Speed
Use responsive images, modern formats like AVIF or WebP, and aggressive caching at the CDN edge. Serve art-directed images for hero sections and prioritize LCP visuals. Use width- and density-aware srcsets and preconnect to CDN origins to shave critical milliseconds.
Eliminate Unnecessary Third-Party Load
Audit third-party tags and replace heavy widgets with in-house lightweight alternatives when possible. Move nonessential analytics to deferred or server-side collection. Use a tag manager sparingly and keep synchronous scripts to a minimum.
CI and Monitoring for Performance
Add Lighthouse checks into continuous integration and keep historical performance data. Set performance budgets and fail builds when budgets are exceeded. Monitor both synthetic and real user metrics to catch regressions before clients notice them.
