
- January 20 2021
- PrestaChamps
Strategies for Reducing Cumulative Layout Shift Scores
One of the most effective strategies for reducing Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) scores is to properly size and optimize images. Unoptimized images can cause page elements to shift when loading, leading to a poor user experience and potentially higher CLS scores. SEO professionals need to ensure that they are optimizing their images, such as resizing large files or compressing them. This will help improve the overall performance of a website and reduce CLS scores, which are now a key part of the Core Web Vitals. Optimizing images can greatly improve the user experience and SEO performance of a website.
Additionally, using the font-display: optional; CSS rule can help prevent unexpected text layout shifts by allowing the browser to render fallback fonts while the web font is still loading. This is especially important for SEO purposes, as Core Web Vitals are now one of the major SEO ranking factors. Ensuring a smooth loading experience with minimal layout shifts is key to keeping SEO rankings high. Font display can play an important role in this process.
It’s also important to avoid content layout shifts by always reserving space for elements that may change in size or position as they load, like advertisements or videos.

You can do this by setting elements width and height values in CSS before they load. This is especially important when considering Core Web Vitals, Google’s website performance metrics that measure the load speed, interactivity, and visual stability of web pages. To improve these metrics, it’s important that the layout of a page remain stable while it loads by reserving space for elements that may change. This way, webpages can provide a great user experience and perform well in Core Web Vitals assessments.
In addition, take advantage of modern JavaScript frameworks that can help minimize layout shifts associated with dynamic content changes by providing efficient methods for updating page elements without disrupting the page layout or user experience. Core Web Vitals are an important part of this optimization process as they provide metrics on the performance and loading speed of your web pages. Tracking these metrics can help you identify areas of your website that need improvement, enabling you to update code and improve the user experience. Utilizing modern JavaScript frameworks can further ensure your website loads quickly and efficiently, providing a great user experience for all visitors.
Lastly, make sure you are always testing your pages on different mobile devices and screen sizes to ensure there are no unexpected layout shifts that result from your device’s viewport size or orientation changes. Thus, it is essential to always test your pages on different mobile devices and screen sizes in order to ensure your Core Web Vitals are not compromised. Layout shifts can occur with changes to the device’s viewport size or orientation, so regularly testing should be part of your core website optimization strategy.