Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How to Fix It in WordPress
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 4:24 am
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How to Fix It in WordPress
Having trouble with cumulative layout shift (CLS) in WordPress?
Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS for short, is a user experience-focused metric that is part of Google's new Core Web Vitals initiative .
If you’ve ever browsed a page that “jumps” while loading, you’ve experienced layout shifting and you know how annoying cumulative layout shift in WordPress can be. But beyond annoying your visitors, CLS can also affect your search engine rankings, so it’s important to address any issues with your site.
Fortunately, you don't have to be a tech whiz to bolivia phone number data and fix cumulative layout shift issues. By understanding the causes and knowing how to fix them, you can reduce the number of unexpected changes to your website.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to Google’s cumulative layout shift metric and show you how to detect CLS issues on your site. Then, we’ll walk you through three easy ways to fix the issues and reduce your site’s CLS score.
What is cumulative layout shift?
Layout shifting occurs when page content moves without user interaction.
A common example is late-loading ads, which you’ve probably seen on media websites. You may have started reading the text on the page only to be “pushed” down by an ad that appears after the page has already loaded.
Cumulative layout shift is a metric that measures all the layout shift that occurs on a page and puts it into a single score. Generally, a high score indicates a lot of layout shift (bad), while a low score indicates little layout shift (good). And a score of zero means your site has zero layout shift issues, which is perfect.
As you can imagine, moving elements can be a headache for your users. There is a risk that they will inadvertently click on a part of your page or even accidentally make a purchase.
Even if there are no direct consequences, many layout changes can be visually distracting. They can also slow down loading times. This seemingly minor issue can have serious repercussions on your audience's user experience (UX).
Unfortunately, the problems with a high Cumulative Layout Shift score don’t end there. Cumulative Layout Shift is also part of Google’s new Core Web Vitals initiative. Starting with the Google Page Experience update, your site’s Core Web Vitals scores are now an SEO ranking factor , meaning issues with CLS can impact your site’s ranking.
How to Identify Cumulative Layout Shift Issues in WordPress
To see your site’s cumulative Layout score and identify issues, we recommend using PageSpeed Insights . It will give you the overall CLS score of your site, but will also go deeper and point out specific layout shift issues that are causing problems.
To get started, enter your URL into the box and click Analyze . The process should only take a few moments. When you get the results, scroll down to and look for your site's cumulative layout shift score:
How to find cumulative layout shift score in Google pagespeed
From here, you can determine how your site is performing in this area. As a general rule, there are three potential ranges your CLS score can fall into:
Good , which is equal to or less than 0.1
OK , which is between 0.1 and 0.25
Bad , which is 0.25 or more
Since this metric directly impacts the optimization of your Core Web Vitals, you should try to aim for as low a score as possible. For more specific tips on how to do this, you can scroll down to the Diagnostics section and look at Avoid significant layout changes . This section will list the individual layout changes on your site:
Instructions from PageSpeed Insights on how to avoid CLS events.
This information can help highlight specific areas of your site that may need some work. Once you've identified the problem, you can apply some simple methods to fix it.
How to Fix Cumulative Layout Shift in WordPress (3 Ways)
Let's look at three effective ways to fix CLS problems. These methods are most effective when used together, so we encourage you to try each approach.
1. Add dimensions to your images, videos and ads
If you have multiple media on your website, chances are that each image and video will be a different size. This is probably unavoidable, no matter what type of site you run.
In essence, this variance does not have a direct impact on the CLS score. However, it still poses a threat: if you do not specify the dimensions of the item, you can run into problems.
Adding dimensions is essential because it provides vital loading instructions to browsers. The dimension information helps browsers reserve the correct amount of space for that resource.
If the browser is unable to do this, it may predict the wrong amount of space. As a result, there may be corrections after the page has loaded, leading to a layout shift. The same principle applies to ads or any embedded material on your site.
Fortunately, recent versions of WordPress take care of this problem to a large extent. If you insert an image through the WordPress editor , WordPress will automatically handle the definition of its dimensions for you. You can see the results by selecting any media:
An example of clear dimensions for an image.
If you add images manually with code or via a plugin, make sure the image dimensions are present.
Another issue with CLS on WordPress is advertising. If you include ads in your content, you will need to make sure you reserve space for those ads to avoid CLS.
Having trouble with cumulative layout shift (CLS) in WordPress?
Cumulative Layout Shift, or CLS for short, is a user experience-focused metric that is part of Google's new Core Web Vitals initiative .
If you’ve ever browsed a page that “jumps” while loading, you’ve experienced layout shifting and you know how annoying cumulative layout shift in WordPress can be. But beyond annoying your visitors, CLS can also affect your search engine rankings, so it’s important to address any issues with your site.
Fortunately, you don't have to be a tech whiz to bolivia phone number data and fix cumulative layout shift issues. By understanding the causes and knowing how to fix them, you can reduce the number of unexpected changes to your website.
In this article, we’ll introduce you to Google’s cumulative layout shift metric and show you how to detect CLS issues on your site. Then, we’ll walk you through three easy ways to fix the issues and reduce your site’s CLS score.
What is cumulative layout shift?
Layout shifting occurs when page content moves without user interaction.
A common example is late-loading ads, which you’ve probably seen on media websites. You may have started reading the text on the page only to be “pushed” down by an ad that appears after the page has already loaded.
Cumulative layout shift is a metric that measures all the layout shift that occurs on a page and puts it into a single score. Generally, a high score indicates a lot of layout shift (bad), while a low score indicates little layout shift (good). And a score of zero means your site has zero layout shift issues, which is perfect.
As you can imagine, moving elements can be a headache for your users. There is a risk that they will inadvertently click on a part of your page or even accidentally make a purchase.
Even if there are no direct consequences, many layout changes can be visually distracting. They can also slow down loading times. This seemingly minor issue can have serious repercussions on your audience's user experience (UX).
Unfortunately, the problems with a high Cumulative Layout Shift score don’t end there. Cumulative Layout Shift is also part of Google’s new Core Web Vitals initiative. Starting with the Google Page Experience update, your site’s Core Web Vitals scores are now an SEO ranking factor , meaning issues with CLS can impact your site’s ranking.
How to Identify Cumulative Layout Shift Issues in WordPress
To see your site’s cumulative Layout score and identify issues, we recommend using PageSpeed Insights . It will give you the overall CLS score of your site, but will also go deeper and point out specific layout shift issues that are causing problems.
To get started, enter your URL into the box and click Analyze . The process should only take a few moments. When you get the results, scroll down to and look for your site's cumulative layout shift score:
How to find cumulative layout shift score in Google pagespeed
From here, you can determine how your site is performing in this area. As a general rule, there are three potential ranges your CLS score can fall into:
Good , which is equal to or less than 0.1
OK , which is between 0.1 and 0.25
Bad , which is 0.25 or more
Since this metric directly impacts the optimization of your Core Web Vitals, you should try to aim for as low a score as possible. For more specific tips on how to do this, you can scroll down to the Diagnostics section and look at Avoid significant layout changes . This section will list the individual layout changes on your site:
Instructions from PageSpeed Insights on how to avoid CLS events.
This information can help highlight specific areas of your site that may need some work. Once you've identified the problem, you can apply some simple methods to fix it.
How to Fix Cumulative Layout Shift in WordPress (3 Ways)
Let's look at three effective ways to fix CLS problems. These methods are most effective when used together, so we encourage you to try each approach.
1. Add dimensions to your images, videos and ads
If you have multiple media on your website, chances are that each image and video will be a different size. This is probably unavoidable, no matter what type of site you run.
In essence, this variance does not have a direct impact on the CLS score. However, it still poses a threat: if you do not specify the dimensions of the item, you can run into problems.
Adding dimensions is essential because it provides vital loading instructions to browsers. The dimension information helps browsers reserve the correct amount of space for that resource.
If the browser is unable to do this, it may predict the wrong amount of space. As a result, there may be corrections after the page has loaded, leading to a layout shift. The same principle applies to ads or any embedded material on your site.
Fortunately, recent versions of WordPress take care of this problem to a large extent. If you insert an image through the WordPress editor , WordPress will automatically handle the definition of its dimensions for you. You can see the results by selecting any media:
An example of clear dimensions for an image.
If you add images manually with code or via a plugin, make sure the image dimensions are present.
Another issue with CLS on WordPress is advertising. If you include ads in your content, you will need to make sure you reserve space for those ads to avoid CLS.