Google Core Report CLS problem 
Author: John W.Google Search Consule is doing something new again. Core Web Vitals. And they are giving me a flunking
grade. Some sort of CLS issue. And when I read more on it, it says this:
Have you ever been reading an article online when something suddenly changes on the page? Without warning, the text moves, and you've lost your place. Or even worse: you're about to tap a link or a button, but in the instant before your finger lands—BOOM—the link moves, and you end up clicking something else!
Most of the time these kinds of experiences are just annoying, but in some cases, they can cause real damage.
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I am aware of that feature on websites, see it all the time on Facebook and others. When you are about
to click on something it changes. Really does suck. But I DO NOT have any of that on my website, that
I am aware of. Why is Google telling me that I do? I do not see any bouncing or Houdini tricks for text
or graphics changing. Just wondering if someone outside of Google can shed some light on this. Because
you all know, getting an answer from Google is like winning the lottery. Pretty much doesn't happen.
Hello.Give a link to your site.
I sent a notification about your question to the company employees, expect an answer from them here in the comments.
It happens slightly when a new page is longer than the display area of the page you were on - and the new page presents a slider. Addin the slider causes a slight shift.
Just a stab in the dark...
Adrian
Author
Site is www.eclectic-ware.com
I kind of have a feeling it may be something we have to live with due to the resonsive design. Since graphics are
growing or shrinking with the screen, maybe that is what Google is detecting.
They are really keeping us hopping.
Author
Hi Adrian,
I'm actually not using any sliders. I do have some galleries on pages, but not 168 pages. Google is not being specific about which pages have the problem, they just give me one URL which is the root page. BUT, since it is effecting 168 pages, I strongly suspect that it has to be related to the header or footer elements. As you view a website in any browswer, and start shrinking that browser, you do see graphics in the header and footer shrink as the window shrinks. And then shift as you glide past a viewport setting. So the CLS issue I believe is related to the header or footer, since every page has much different data on it, with seldom anything repeating.
So we should explore the header and footers for this shift that is going on. Is it graphic related, title related, shopping cart symbol, social icons, the JS driven menu, or even just a text block. One or more of those things must be causing the alarm code with Google.
Anyone else have any ideas? And then, solutions?
Hello John
By looking at your website, I see no reason why this should be a problem. I've attempted to run Lighthouse on your website too but didn't encounter the issue. How did you get it to pop up?
Could you attach a screenshot of that?
Keep me posted here
Thank you
Stefano
Author
It's in Google Search Consule. Still showing 4 pages. It has fluctuated. Went up to 6, down to 5, and holding at 4.
Could very well be one of Google's nervous glitches. And Google does not report everything accurately.
Such as: The CLS issue. In search counsule, it tells me 168 of my pages are bad in the Core Vitals for a high
CLS. In Lighthouse, every page tested tells me I have a zero for CLS. So which is right?
I bet Google doesn't even know. Picture attached.
Hello John
between the two, I would trust Search Console more.
That being said, I am unable to identify any problem at all with your website. I reckon it might not actually be a problem. I believe it could be better to contact Google's support via their forum directly for such an issue
In the meantime, I'm having the issue with structured data analyzed so that we can get that out of the way
Thank you
Stefano
Author
Thanks, Stefano.
I have a feeling it is not a problem. Site loads fast, but I do not have a slow connection to test how it loads on some of those 10 Mbs speeds. Mine downloads at 82 Mbs, so everything looks fast to me. I have noticed reports flip flop in Search Consule, such as those Core Vitals things. On Mobile, I had 158 poor pages for the last 2-1/2 months. Suddenly, 8 of them appear as good. Then 158 go from poor to need improvement for a few days, and suddenly 158 go to good, and the 8 that were good go to poor. And I have made no real changes to attempt to find what the CLS issue is. On desktop, all pages are reporting poor as they have since the Core Vitals started. And I have around 220+ pages, yet they all have never shown up in Search Consule. It finds them in my sitemap.xml, but it never seems to report an accurate number.
So I think my greater concentration just needs to be on getting the site noticed. It works, it loads well, and the responsive design works very well. I am learning more about lazy loading images and tweaking some manual page breaks in the lower viewport to make the wide cell phone view display in one column instead of multiple columns. So I have a little work to do now that I am looking more at how the pages respond in the viewports. So if I can just beef up the number of people who find me daily, I will start paying less attention to Google's report card and just get on with life.
Thanks for the help.