SEO 101: What Is Cumulative Layout Shift?

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SEO 101: What Is Cumulative Layout 
Shift?
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Google focuses on a user-centric approach to
ranking web pages. It rewards websites that
perform well in terms of main content loading
speed, first input delay, and visual stability, based
on the Core Web Vitals.
Optimize for Core Web Vitals if your company is
serious about its search presence and you want to
get more leads from Google. A strategy targeting
Core Web Vitals will allow you to provide a better
user experience and increase conversion rates.
Cumulative Layout Shift is one of these key
metrics. It measures the website’s “jumpiness” and
how it reacts to elements loading. ADVDMS takes
an in-depth look at what is CLS to help you see
how it can be used to rank higher in search
engines and give your visitors a better experience.
Google’s Core Web Vitals and its Role in SEO
Google’s Core Web Vitals are user-focused metrics
that measure a webpage’s “health.” They also help
to provide a seamless user experience.
Google is a search engine, and its job is to provide
the most relevant results for a user’s query.
Google’s Core Web Vitals metrics consist of three
components: content loading time, interactivity,
and visual stability. Google is gradually improving
its algorithm to detect small details such as these
to provide the best content.
Let’s put a spotlight on the visual stability metric or
Cumulative Layout Shift.
What Is Cumulative Layout Shift?
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) is the metric used
to measure the stability of your website’s pages
while they load.
Have you noticed how 
images and 
links
sometimes move down when a website loads?
This movement could 
indicate 
that page
elements aren’t visually stable and may have a
poor Google CLS score.
Core Web Vitals CLS is optimized to prevent users
from accidentally clicking or becoming frustrated
when they are taken to a page that’s not their
intended destination. Visual stability improves
user 
experience 
and 
your 
overall 
SEO
performance.
Unstable websites can be frustrating because the
content changes as users look at it. It can cause
unpredictable behavior, as well as annoyance.
Sometimes, the effect of the shift can be benign.
The user needs to locate their spot again on the
page to continue viewing.
Other times, the effects can be even worse. A
user might click on a button or link and expect to
see the button or link. However, as they move
around the page, elements can shift. Users find
these shifts extremely frustrating. It could also
turn potential clients away from your website.
How To Calculate CLS Scores
It is easy to determine if your website has
marked layout shifts. You will be able to see if
the layout is consistent as pages load. We
recommend that you access your website using
a variety of devices. Ask others to do so too.
You’ll 
find 
that Cumulative 
Layout Shift
experiences can be very different. It depends on
how optimized your website looks and the
device you are using.
PageSpeed Insights is the best tool to measure
your CLS website score. This can be accessed
directly through Core Web Vitals CLS to see how
Google views your website directly.
You can enter URLs and get a performance score
based on Google’s data over the past 28 days.
This score considers several metrics, such as CLS
and 
LCP. PageSpeed 
Insights provides a
breakdown of each score in percentage.
The user experience can vary depending on the
device and internet connection they use and
many other factors. Although it is impossible to
predict the percentage of users who experience
Cumulative Layout Shift, you can take steps to
minimize this risk.
To comply with Google’s standards, your
Cumulative Layout Shift score should not exceed
0.10. Any higher than that indicates significant,
apparent shifts in the layout, leading to poor user
experience.
What Causes Poor Google CLS Scores?
Poor CLS website scores are caused by the
browser calculating the placement of all elements
on the screen. The browser might not receive the
information in time for parsing if it doesn’t have
enough hinting. This can cause the rendering to
alter, shifting the content within the viewport.
The higher the likelihood of elements moving on a
page, the more work the browser must do, and
the less information it has about rendering time,
the better.
Images don’t specify height and width. This
means that the browser doesn’t allocate space
until the size of the image is known. The
browser will do the rest.
Any embedded element, iframe or ad that
doesn’t specify the size.
These page elements could contribute to a low
Cumulative Layout Shift score:
The new dynamic content is added above the
current viewport. No screen size was provided
before rendering.
The rendering behavior of dynamically loaded
fonts may be affected.
Animations loaded after rendering the page.
In other words, any content that is rendered late
or requires new size calculations by the browser
could cause it to shift and lower its Cumulative
Layout Shift score.
You can theoretically have a swift website but still
has a poor CLS score. Like other Core Web Vitals
metrics, CLS SEO scores may not correlate directly
with site performance. Although your site may
load fast, it can feel like it moves in accordion
mode.
Even so, significant layout changes can have a
detrimental effect on the site’s UX. Google regards
this as incredibly important, so it weighs each data
point so heavily.
The following are some ways you can optimize
your website for better Cumulative Layout Shift
scores:
Add width and height attributes to images and
videos.
Media files and ads are the main culprits in high
CLS SEO scores. If you upload an image file of
large resolution but don’t specify the height and
width, it could break your page’s layout.
It is best to use images with the exact dimensions
you 
intend 
to display 
for your website’s
performance. 
The browser won’t need to spend time processing
power resizing images. You should set height and
width attributes for each image you display to
ensure that the browser knows exactly where the
image is located and doesn’t have to change the
layout.
iFrame
HTML code inline
Javascript tag with HTML fallback
Reserve space for ads and embeds.
Embeds enable you to add web content from
another page, such as YouTube videos, Google
Maps, or Instagram posts. There are many ways
to embed, and they can be done in a variety of
ways:
However, most embeddable widgets do not
include the correct dimension of embedded
content. For example, if you embed a tweet, it
may be text-only or contain images. Most
platforms that provide embeddable widgets do
not include the dimensions in their code. When
embedded content loads, it can cause significant
layout changes.
Optimize font delivery.
Fonts, not surprising, are a major cause of page
speed issues and affect everything about what is
CLS.
Nearly all websites use at least one web font
today (from Google Fonts or other sources).
Because these fonts have different letter sizes and
spacings than the default browser fonts, layout
shifts can occur when the font finally loads. This
happens especially if your font is slow to load.
It is possible to reduce this problem, but you
might not be able to eliminate it completely.
However, custom web fonts are essential for
branding and good design.
Preloading fonts will ensure that font assets are
rendered with a higher priority during page
rendering. To host static assets like fonts, use
aggressive caching and a reliable Content
Delivery Network (CDN). The CDN will serve your
visitors from the nearest and fastest network,
resulting in faster loading speeds and minimizing
layout shifts due to fonts.
There is no one right way to deal with web fonts.
The optional value will not cause a re-layout
when the web font is available. The preloaded
font will also likely meet the first painting, so there
won’t be any layout shifts.
Related contents
Signup forms for the newsletter
Sticky bars with messages or notifications
Even sticky bar designs
Implement dynamic content correctly.
Every website contains dynamic content. We’ve all
seen the following:
It is best to place dynamic content below existing
content. This will avoid layout changes caused by
dynamic content. The exception to this rule is
when dynamic content must be displayed above
the existing content due to user interaction.
If you cannot insert dynamic content over existing
content, you can reserve enough space.
Optimize Your CLS Score with ADVDMS
Optimizing your Cumulative Layout Shift score
can be a long and complicated process. Although
it might not immediately impact search engine
rankings, it is a Core Web Vitals metric that will
grow in importance as Google collects more data
for CLS scores.
ADVDMS has SEO Services in Denver that can help
you measure your website’s performance to meet
Google’s Cumulative Layout Shift standards.
ADVDMS’ team of SEO experts can design a
website that ticks all the boxes to achieve better
ranking results. Call us today and let our team
help you reduce or eliminate layout shifts to
improve user experience.
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