Cumulative Layout Shift

Making improvements to your website is always important, because by doing so you significantly improve usability. One adjustment that may be of interest is a cumulative layout shift. What is a cumulative layout shift and how does it impact SEO? I explain it to you here.

What is a cumulative layout shift?

A cumulative layout shift, also abbreviated as CLS, is a dataset that makes it easy to avoid shifting elements on a Web page. CLS is a relatively new change from Google and calculates the impact of shifts.

Ralf van Veen

SEO Specialist

With 11 years of experience, I improve the organic findability of businesses.

Shifts on the web page

You’ve probably experienced it while scrolling on a website: you’re reading a text but it suddenly jumps, so you don’t know where you left off. Or you want to press a cross on a pop-up, but accidentally press the ad because the pop-up shifts. Very annoying, but this can be solved with the advent of cumulative layout shift.(1)

A cumulative layout shift is a type of tool that indicates whether there are any shifts on a Web page and indicates exactly how large they are with a CLS score. A score above 0.25 is bad and requires adjustment.

The impact of cumulative layout shift on SEO

A cumulative layout shift may definitely have an impact on the SEO of a website or page. It makes a website a lot more user-friendly on mobile devices. For SEO optimization, it is therefore definitely interesting to make use of the CLS.(2)

My advice

I recommend using cumulative layout shift: this is possible with Google Search Console, among other tools, such as PageSpeed Insights and Google Lighthouse. Images without dimensions, advertisements and slow-loading Web fonts are possible causes of shifts on a Web page. The CLS indicates this, allowing you to implement a solution and still benefit from a user-friendly website.

Ralf van Veen

SEO Specialist

With 11 years of experience, I improve the organic findability of businesses.

Resources

  1. Minimize layout shift. (s.d.). Google For Developers. https://developers.google.com/publisher-tag/guides/minimize-layout-shift
  2. S, A. (2024, March 29). Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): What It Is and How to Improve It. Hostinger Tutorials. https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/cumulative-layout-shift-cls

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cumulative Layout Shift?

A cumulative layout shift, or CLS for short, is a particular dataset that allows you to avoid suffering from shifting elements on your web pages. CLS was introduced by Google not long ago. To determine the CLS, Google looks at how often an element shifts and how large these shifts are.

What is the impact of Cumulative Layout Shift on SEO?

CLS makes your site look more user-friendly. Especially if you use websites on smartphones or tablets you notice this very well. Higher user satisfaction will lead to more traffic to your website, which will likely improve your results as well.

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Ralf van Veen

Senior SEO-specialist
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I have been working for 12 years as an independent SEO specialist for companies (in the Netherlands and abroad) that want to rank higher in Google in a sustainable manner. During this period I have consulted A-brands, set up large-scale international SEO campaigns and coached global development teams in the field of search engine optimization.

With this broad experience within SEO, I have developed the SEO course and helped hundreds of companies with improved findability in Google in a sustainable and transparent way. For this you can consult my portfolio, references and collaborations.

This article was originally published on 3 April 2024. The last update of this article was on 26 September 2024. The content of this page was written and approved by Ralf van Veen. Learn more about the creation of my articles in my editorial guidelines.