The adtech company Viously, specializing in video, has assessed the performance of these websites that offer video content(*) in terms of user experience and navigational fluidity, commonly referred to as “Core Web Vitals” or “Essential Web Signals,” using Google PageSpeed Insight.

This analysis takes into account the loading speed of page content (Largest Contentful Paint), page stability (Cumulative Layout Shift), and interactivity delay for visitors (First Input Delay).

Why is this important?

The quality of user experience provided by websites is influenced by these “Core Web Vitals.” This, in turn, affects audience satisfaction, retention, potential growth over time, time spent on the site, number of page views, as well as site ranking, overall performance in terms of audience, user experience, and advertising revenue. It is therefore strategic for publishers to focus on these scores and maintain or optimize them at the highest level.

Presentation of scores by major categories of websites (scores ranging from 0 to 100; 100 being the maximum score):

Key findings:

• Results vary significantly across different categories of websites. The Culture/Entertainment category achieves the highest scores (77 on desktop and 45 on mobile), while several categories, particularly in the Mobile segment, are lagging behind (Food/Health averaging at 27, Science/Tech at 24, Automotive/Sports at 29).
• Scores also vary greatly between devices across all categories. Desktop historically holds an advantage (with an average of 67 across all categories) compared to Mobile, which still has room for improvement (scoring only 36 overall, despite mobile devices currently accounting for the majority of internet traffic).

How to take action?

However, this overall observation is not a predetermined outcome, as all scores can be improved.

Viously has observed a significant difference between websites using the Viously video player and others. The score improvement can reach up to +37 points for mobile (depending on the categories) for Viously’s partner publishers, and up to +32 points for desktop.

How to improve these core web vitals as publishers?

• The first step is to prioritize page performance.
• Implement lazy loading: Display only the necessary elements in the initial viewport.
• Reduce image sizes: Convert them to the .webp format (instead of .png or .jpeg) to reduce their weight by 50%.
• Use native browser fonts.
• Collaborate with a partner who shares the same vision and expertise in page performance.
• Measure daily using tools like WebPageTest and LightHouse, which provide clear indications for technical and product teams on areas that need improvement.
• Ensure your Consent Management Platform (CMP) is continuously optimized.
• Having a CMP that loads quickly and delivers consents to buyers as quickly as possible is crucial. If this is not the case, explore alternatives like FAST CMP.

“Faster pages create a virtuous cycle as they improve the user experience, leading to increased time spent on the pages. With increased time spent per page, better signals are sent to Google SEO or Discover, resulting in improved rankings and visibility, ultimately leading to increased audience.

Similarly, the extended time spent per page exposes users to more advertisements, thereby increasing the advertisers’ key performance indicators (KPIs)”, explains Loic Dussart, Co-founder of Viously.

“Publishers tend to attribute performance issues to advertising partners. While some of these issues may be related, there are numerous optimizations that publishers can undertake, which have a significant and immediate impact”, adds Loic Dussart.

For more information on this ranking, specific categories, or details about individual scores, feel free to contact Viously at: l.dussart@viously.com

(*)Based on the November 2022 ACPM ranking: https://www.acpm.fr/Les-chiffres/Frequentation-Sites-et-Applications/Classement-des-Sites. The analysis includes only websites that offer video content through the use of a “video player.”

To learn more, you can refer to the following resources:

• Ratecard — Article link
• What’s new in publishing — Article link