By Shad Super in Questions —

What Specific Strategies Can You Implement to Improve Scores in PageSpeed Insights, Particularly for Metrics Like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID)?

Summary

Improving scores in PageSpeed Insights, particularly for metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID), necessitates optimizing server response times, ensuring efficient asset delivery, minimizing render-blocking resources, and employing specific practices to enhance interactivity. This guide provides strategies to effectively boost your PageSpeed Insights scores.

Optimizing Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)

Enhance Server Response Time

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Utilize a CDN to serve static assets quickly from servers close to users. This reduces latency and improves load times for the largest contentful elements on your page. Read more about why performance matters on Google Web Fundamentals [Why Performance Matters, 2023].

Server-Side Caching

Implement server-side caching to deliver pre-rendered pages or components, significantly reducing the time to first byte (TTFB). Learn more about server-side caching on web.dev [Time to First Byte (TTFB), 2020].

Database Optimization

Optimize database queries by indexing and carefully managing database interactions to minimize latency. Information on this topic is available on Google Developers [Optimize CSS Delivery, 2022].

Efficient Asset Delivery

Preloading Critical Assets

Use the <link rel="preload"> tag to load critical resources early, ensuring they are available as soon as the page requests them. Explore more on preloading assets on web.dev [Preload Critical Assets, 2022].

Compression Techniques

Compress images and text files using formats like WebP, Gzip, and Brotli to reduce their size without losing quality. Check guidelines on enabling text compression on web.dev [Enable Text Compression, 2021].

Responsive Images

Use the <srcset> and <sizes> attributes to serve responsive images, ensuring appropriate image sizes for different devices. More on serving responsive images can be found on web.dev [Serve Responsive Images, 2023].

Minimizing Render-Blocking Resources

CSS Optimization

Minify CSS files and use <link rel="preload"> for critical styles to ensure they load quickly. Consult the guide on optimizing CSS delivery on Google Developers [Optimize CSS Delivery, 2022].

JavaScript Defer and Async

Defer non-critical JavaScript or load it asynchronously to reduce the render-blocking time. Details on deferring JavaScript can be found on web.dev [Defer Non-Critical JavaScript, 2023].

Critical Rendering Path

Inline essential styles and scripts to minimize the critical rendering path (CRP), ensuring quicker rendering of visible content. Learn about the critical rendering path on web.dev [Understanding the Critical Rendering Path, 2023].

Optimizing First Input Delay (FID)

Reduce JavaScript Execution Time

Minimize and optimize JavaScript execution by splitting code into smaller chunks and ensuring efficient script execution. Insights can be found on web.dev [Reduce JavaScript Payloads with Code Splitting, 2021].

Optimizing Third-Party Scripts

Limit the use of third-party scripts and ensure they are loaded asynchronously to minimize their impact on main thread execution. More on managing third-party scripts is available on web.dev [Efficiently Load Third-Party JavaScript, 2021].

Web Workers

Use web workers to run heavy tasks in the background, ensuring that the main thread remains responsive for user interactions. Detailed information can be found on Mozilla Developer Network [Using Web Workers, 2023].

Optimizing Web Fonts

Preconnect and DNS Prefetch

Use <link rel="preconnect"> to establish early connections to font providers, which can reduce latency for web font loading. Read the guide on preconnect and DNS prefetch on web.dev [Preconnect and DNS Prefetch, 2022].

Font Display Property

Use the <font-display: swap> property to prevent invisible text during font loading, ensuring a smoother user experience. More on web font optimization is available on Google Web Fundamentals [Web Font Optimization, 2023].

Subsetting Fonts

Load only the required font subsets or characters to reduce the font payload and improve page load time. Details on best practices for web fonts can be found on web.dev [Web Font Best Practices, 2022].

Conclusion

Boosting your PageSpeed Insights scores, particularly for Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) and First Input Delay (FID), involves a comprehensive approach that includes server optimization, efficient asset delivery, and minimizing render-blocking resources. Following these best practices will lead to faster load times and an enhanced user experience.

References