Optimized all images to WebP format (less than 50kb)
Set all images to lazy load except for the largest contentful paint (LCP), which is set to ‘eager’ loading.
Manually uploaded fonts and adjusted settings to ‘swap’
Added ‘async’ and ‘defer’ tags to all scripts
Removed all page animations
Checked for scripts causing DOM delay
Minified JS, CSS, etc. in Webflow settings
Simplified FCP CSS elements
Resolved all ‘large layout shift’ messages in the core vitals report
Resolved all console errors
and so on…
I achieved a mobile score of 64 and an LCP of over 3 seconds, which negatively impacts my client’s SEO results as it fails to meet the web core vitals report standards.
I discovered that the slow loading of Webflow CSS and JS is causing this issue and is crucial for the LCP to complete. In theory, inlining your CSS could resolve this issue, but since I’m not a developer, manually constructing my entire navigation isn’t feasible for me. It’s frustrating that Webflow doesn’t offer the option to add an async tag to the default CSS and JS files it renders on page load. Although it’s not the ideal solution as you’d prefer to host your assets on your own domain instead of ‘assets-webflow.com’, it could alleviate the render-blocking delay that affects your SEO score.
Test Webflow and the promoted showcase sites on pagespeed.web.dev and you will see most fail core web vitals. If you spend enough on advertising you can still overcome some of that impact but at significant cost.
Forget advertising; I’m all about SEO. That’s why I moved away from Webflow.
For my new projects, I’m now building on WordPress using Bricks Builder, which has been the best discovery I’ve made in years. If you’re familiar with the Webflow workflow, you’re pretty much set to start building with Bricks. The entire platform is fully focused on SEO. The biggest advantage? You have everything hosted on your own domain, and you can choose your own hosting provider. This server-side speed saves me a lot of time optimizing my assets, as I’ve eliminated the frustrating Webflow TTFB and LCP issues.
Webflow missed its opportunity by not listening to its community, and I suspect many more customers will follow my lead in leaving the platform.
TTFB on one of my sites is currently at 1.8 seconds - after a rather patronising reply from Webflow support which was filled with basic client-side optimisation steps that don’t even affect TTFB, I’ve commented out all external scripts and tested again in incognito, the issue persists.
The main problem causing my website https://www.greenattic.com/ to load slowly is TTFB. For months, I’ve been fixing everything I can influence, but I still can’t get the LCP below 3 seconds. Given that Webflow hosts all their sites (524,528 other sites) on Amazon’s server under the same IP address 44.242.99.40, it’s not surprising that the TTFB is almost 1 second and the render delay is over 12 seconds. Since website loading speed is very important for UX and organic positioning, I’ve started to significantly lose impressions and clicks.
It’s great that you’re diving into the PageSpeed Insights to improve your site’s performance! For sustainability-focused websites like OranjeDuurzaam, ensuring fast load times is crucial for both user experience and SEO.
A few things to consider for improving LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), FCP (First Contentful Paint), and TTFB (Time to First Byte):
Optimize Images:
Minify JavaScript and CSS:
Use Font Optimization:
Third party Script Response Time (TTFB):
Preload Key Resources:
Alternate, If you’re looking for an easy way to speed up your site and reduce these performance issues, I highly recommend Website Speedy from the Webflow Marketplace. It automates key optimizations like image compression, JS/CSS minification, lazy loading, and font optimization to improve LCP, FCP, and TTFB.
Facing the same issue.