What is CLS?

CLS, or Cumulative Layout Shift, measures how much the layout of a page shifts during loading.

What is CLS?

It is an abbreviation of Cumulative Layout Shift. This measure measures whether a page’s layout shifts during the page load. Together with LCP and FID, this is used to measure user experience. Google looks at how often the layout shifts and how large these shifts are. An error that can occur during loading is that, for example, an image shifts just when the visitor wants to click on it and therefore clicks on something else. Such errors can lead to a bad user experience. It is therefore important to measure this regularly. Here you can look at the elements involved and the distance. Distance refers to how far the element has shifted.

CLS score

The CLS score is good if it is below 0.1 seconds. If the CLS is between 0.1 and 0.25 seconds, it needs improvement. When it is above 0.25 seconds, optimization must immediately take place.

The CLS score affects the ranking in the search results. This is therefore a criterion that is important in SEO marketing. This is because you focus on the findability in search engines. The better the CLS score, the better you can be found in the search results. Besides that the score is important for SEO, it is also important for your users. When too many shifts happen, it can lead to bad reviews and turn off new customers.