[Resolved] Core Web Vital GeneratePress Theme – Broadcast

[HT]

I have a Broadcast variant of GP. It’s basically creating problems with Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). In the mobile and desktop team.

Can you please help to understand what is that I’m doing wrong or is it a known issue with the theme itself?

[HT]

Can you please also confirm whether the theme is compatible with all Core Web Vital components?

[Elvin]

Hi there,

I’ve checked the site and noticed that it doesn’t seem to be using optimization plugins to improve how the assets are served.

I highly recommend getting one to at least minify and/or aggregate the stylesheets and/or scripts.

I’d also try adding an image optimization plugin to improve the speed of the images are served.

Note: I’d address the ones highlighted here – https://share.getcloudapp.com/DOuDzyen – especially the “Reduce initial server response time” flag because everything else relies on it. This isn’t something a theme can fix. This is generally fixed by getting a better quality hosting.

[HT]

It’s using an optimization plugin. But, can you answer the details about themes CLS as showed in the video, please?

[Elvin]

It’s using an optimization plugin. But, can you answer the details about themes CLS as showed in the video, please?

The theme, as it is, will perform fast. The problem starts when you start adding scripts.

I’ve checked the exact page on your video and here’s the results.
https://share.getcloudapp.com/geubnXrj

Similar to the previous reply, it’s being flagged with “Reduce initial server response time”. It’s consistent on all of your pages because this is a hosting quality issue. There’s nothing we can do about this. You need to migrate to a better host or get a higher plan for higher quality hosting.

This is important to address because all the other requests that load on your site will depend on it. If this is slow, the requests for assets will load late, and if assets like stylesheets that are responsible for layout loads a bit late, it will cause CLS.

Aside from this, there are other things like “Reduce the impact of third-party code”, “Reduce JavaScript execution time” and all the other flagged issues.

If you read the reports in detail, you’ll see that there are no theme-related scripts being flagged in it. It’s all related to the google ads you’ve added to the site. That’s where the optimization plugins come in.

You’ll need an optimization plugin to improve how the ad scripts are being served.

Note: I’ve checked the site and it doesn’t look like it’s using any optimization plugins like you mentioned. Perhaps you’ve installed it already, but this will still require configuration.

[HT]

More details in the private section. But I didn’t get the answer about the layout shift happening. Why is that layout shift happening?

[David]

Hi there,

your site is starting the render before all the HTML has been loaded – which is not anything to do with the Theme. Some other code / optimization whether that be a plugin or server side would be causing that.

I would begin by disabling any plugin/server optimizations first.

[HT]

I think I’m getting confused.

In the earlier replies, it was mentioned that you need optimization plug-in etc….

Now in the latest reply, it says I need to disable the plugin.

Is that just strange?

your site is starting the render before all the HTML has been loaded

– I don’t know what you mean by this? The layout shift is happening because of full HTML is not getting loaded?

[David]

The default behaviour of a browser loading a web page in very simple terms is:

Load ALL HTML and Style Sheets > Begin displaying ( rendering ) the page in the browser.
On your site the HTML for Sidebars is not being loaded until AFTER the browser begins rendering the page.

This means that some function is interfering with the HTML being loaded.

To debug this issue we need to identify what code is causing the problem:

1. Disable all optimizations – does the CLS go away?
a. IF YES – we know its an optimization setting thats causing the problem. Then its a case of investigating which optimization setting is causing the problem.
b. IF NO – we know its not the optimization thats causing the issue and we need to look at what else can be causing this. Which could be another plugin or 3rd party service such as Adverts.

If we can first eliminate the optimizations as the problem then we can move forward.

[HT]

I have tested as requested but couldn’t find any issues related to plugin/optimization.

1. Disabled all optimizations – does the CLS go away? NO
2. I have disabled all the possible plug-ins from the site – – does the CLS go away? NO

Any other tips?

[David]

Can you check the login details – theres a front end login form that doesn’t accept those details

[HT]

Login Details are correct. I’veve tested again.

[David]

Can you disable the Adverts on the staging site?

[HT]

It’s disabled now.

[David]

I am still seeing the Ads load …. but can’t see whats causing the deferring of that HTML. Oddly another user had the same issue and he narrowed the conflict down to his Anti Spam plugin:

https://generatepress.com/forums/topic/sidebar-causing-a-lot-of-cls-cumulative-layout-shift/#post-1730012

I cannot explain why that would cause it – but i notice you have Akismet on the site – can you disable that so we can eliminate that as the cause

[Author]

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