A Core Web Vitals checklist for WordPress and Shopify builds

Good Core Web Vitals are rarely about clever tricks. They come from a handful of habits applied consistently. This is the checklist I use on WordPress and Shopify builds.

Images

• Serve modern formats (WebP or AVIF) at the size the layout actually needs.
• Give every image a width and height so the page does not jump while it loads.
• Load the hero image early and everything below the fold lazily.

Scripts and plugins

• Audit every plugin or app. Remove what is not earning its weight.
• Delay or remove third-party scripts that are not needed for the first view.
• Prefer one well-built custom section over three apps that each add their own code.

Fonts, caching and delivery

• Self-host fonts, limit the number of weights and use font-display: swap.
• Put a CDN such as Cloudflare in front of the site and cache static assets for a long time.
• Keep the database lean on WordPress: clean up revisions and transients.

Measure with real data

Lab scores are a starting point. Check field data for the pages that matter most, fix the biggest problem first and measure again.