[Support request] LCP and CLS issue in core web vitals (Google search console)

[Shami]

My LCP is longer than 4 sec (both mobile and desktop) and CLS is more than 2.5s (Desktop)

I’ve tried many times.

But failed to fix it.

When I look in gtmetrix, I see all the metrics in the proper range. Which means, LCP and CLS are normal.

But search console shows that they are higher than the good range.

Will you please take a look at my website and help me troubleshoot where the problem is?

Let me know.

[Elvin]

Hi there,

I’ve checked your site and most things content related being flagged were within Thrive editor.

I suggest asking Thrive theme’s (TAR) section for any suggestions on how to improve the performance of their widgets/elements.

Also, consider using caching and optimization plugins. I’ve noticed that your site isn’t using one. (you’ll probably get this advice from Thrive’s support as well)

[Shami]

I’m using W3 Cache Plugin. Plus, I’m also using plugins for image optimization. Everything is well optimized.

I’m using as few plugins as possible.

Probably, the issue is either with Theme or Thrive architect or My Hosting.

I know that GP Premium is well optimized.

I’m just confused why this problem is happening.

The weird thing is:

GTMetrix is showing that my LCP and CLS are fine. While the search console says that all my urls are poor and have CLS and LCP issue.

[David]

Hi there,

is Google Console flagging the issues on Mobile or Desktop ? Or both ?

[Shami]

These are the issues appearing inside ‘core web vital’ (Google Search Console):

CLS issue: more than 0.25 (desktop)
LCP issue: longer than 4 s (desktop)
LCP issue: longer than 4 s (mobile)

Almost all my post urls are appearing as poor.

I’ve tried web developer tool lighthouse, which is in chrome.

There it shows no problem.

I’ve been trying since a few months. The search console still shows the same issue.

I’ve optimised everything as much as possible…
Like using a good hosting, keeping few plugins, using cache, optimizing images, changing font-size, etc.

But nothing worked. The search console is still flagging them as poor urls in core web vitals.

[David]

Running a few different tests there is very little difference between FCP and LCP – so the issue isn’t with the Largest Contentful Paint Element but the time it takes to render the FCP.

Issues reported are:
1. Reduce Initial Server Response time… something your Host should look into.
2. Avoid Excessive DOM elements – this is related to the Content particularly the additional HTML from the Page Builder and that there are 100s of Paragraph tags …. thats not easily fixed without editing the post.

CLS – there are known issues with using Hover Sub Menus – googles algorithm doesn’t account hover events as user initiated actions so opening and closing menus can trigger a lot of tiny CLS events that accumulate over time… we’ll be making some improvements to that in the next theme update. In the meantime its best to use Click for your menu drop downs.

[Shami]

Hey, I implemented and waited to see what’s the issue here.

I talked to the hosting provider.

He said:

“I see, but again that is not the server initial response but generating and executing your code, so coding/performance. This is unfortunately website design and coding and beyond the scope of our support. If you need help with a specific item related to our servers or hosting infrastructure, we would be more than happy to help. Otherwise, you will need to reach out to a developer to address any issues with your website design/performance/coding.”

When it comes to performance, I’m using very few plugins (only 14).

All my images are served in WebP format.

And are highly compressed to their limit.

The hosting company support says that the issue is not with the initial server response time. It’s with the coding and design of the website.

I’ve fixed the CLS issue in the Search Console.

The only issue remaining is of ‘LCP longer than 4s’

I dug a little bit in the pagespeed insights…

And it reports this as the issue:

Post Title
<h1 class=”entry-title” itemprop=”headline”>

How can a simple headline cause this LCP issue?

Please note that the LCP issue is only in mobile urls.

[David]

How can a simple headline cause this LCP issue?

That H1 is largest element ( in pixels ) that is displayed above the fold.
The LCP time is how long it takes for that to display. As its pure HTML it itself will not incur any delay.

As i said above the issue comes before it is displayed.

1. Server response time – i ran a web page test report from a Mumbai server:

https://www.webpagetest.org/result/210422_BiDcEW_231e6541a095993fe83ac447775742c2/1/details/#step1_request

You will see the time to first byte is over 1.2s – thats a network/server issue.

2. Secondly on a PSI report

https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwizbuskout.com%2Fadvantages-and-disadvantages-of-reading-books%2F

Major issue: Reduce the impact of third-party code

All of that ad code is having to load before the page can be rendered. Use a plugin like Flying Scripts or other optimization plugin to defer the loading of those scripts

I ran a Web Test

[Shami]

Hey,

I’ve moved to cloud hosting.

But the issue of LCP is still there.

So now it’s clear that the host is not the problem now.

I’ve removed the third party code (Google Ads) to check the issue properly. (Only on the url provided)

But the same lcp issue is still there.

According to GPI, this element is behind the lcp issue:

<h1 class=”entry-title” itemprop=”headline”>

Help me fix it.

Put the url that I have provided in the Google Page Speed Insights.

And help me fix that lcp issue.

It has become a pain now.

I’ve tried all the options. It just won’t budge.

I’m even using WP-Rocket (Highly Optimized). And still I’m not seeing the expected results.

[David]

This <h1 class=”entry-title” itemprop=”headline”> is just a line of HTML – it is not the cause of the LCP – its the Element that Google is measuring as the Largest Contentful item of your page. Why it is taking so long to load is noted in the PSI Report.

If you read the PSI report yourself you will now see many factors that need improving – the top two:

1. Eliminate render-blocking resources
The largest render blocking file is coming from the Thrive plugin. You should raise the issue with Thrive.

2. Reduce initial server response time
This is server related. And this will also affect #1.Slower server resposne means slower loading of render-blocking resources.

PSI reckons resolving those issues will shave off over 1.5 seconds of loading time. Which will imrprove both the FCP and LCP times.

[Author]

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