Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are three Google metrics that show how fast, responsive and stable a web page feels to real visitors: LCP for loading speed, INP for responsiveness and CLS for visual stability.
- 3 min read
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics Google uses to assess the user experience of a page. It comes down to three things.
- LCP, Largest Contentful Paint: how long it takes for the largest visible element, often a photo or heading, to load. Good is within 2.5 seconds.
- INP, Interaction to Next Paint: how quickly the page responds when someone clicks, taps or types. Good is within 200 milliseconds.
- CLS, Cumulative Layout Shift: how much the content shifts around while loading. Good is a score under 0.1.
Google measures these values from real visitors who use Chrome. You can see that data in Google Search Console and in PageSpeed Insights. A page passes if at least three quarters of visits fall within the thresholds.
Why it matters for your business
Most people looking for a tradesperson do so on their phone. Often on the go, sometimes with a poor connection, sometimes with an urgent problem such as a leak. A page that loads slowly or shifts just as someone is about to tap the call button costs you that enquiry.
Core Web Vitals are also part of Google's assessment. It is not a decisive factor, good content comes first. But with two comparable pages, a better experience can make the difference.
The main effect therefore lies in Conversion. A fast, stable site gets more visitors to click through to your form or call. That applies to visitors from Google, but just as much to visitors from your ads, where you pay for every click.
How Core Web Vitals work
Every time someone visits your site in Chrome, the browser can measure how long loading takes, how quickly the page responds and how much shifts. Google collects those measurements anonymously over a period of 28 days. That is why you only see improvements in the figures after a few weeks.
You can also do a test measurement with tools such as PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse. That gives an immediate impression and concrete points for improvement, but it remains a simulation. The real data from visitors is what counts.
An example. Say a roofer has a website with a large slider on the homepage with five photos of four megabytes each, straight from the camera. A chat widget, three fonts and a few tracking scripts load. After a second, a cookie banner appears at the top and pushes the whole page down. On mobile it takes more than five seconds before the first photo appears, and the call button shifts just as someone wants to tap it.
After the improvements, there is one well-compressed photo in a modern format at the top, with fixed dimensions. The slider is gone, the number of fonts is limited, scripts only load when they are needed and the cookie banner slides over the page instead of sitting in it. The page loads much faster and the button stays where it belongs.
Common mistakes
The best-known mistake is images that are too heavy. Photos from a camera or phone without compression are often many times bigger than necessary.
A second mistake is too many plugins and scripts. Every chat widget, every pop-up tool and every extra tracker adds loading time. Whatever does not bring in enquiries can go.
Also often seen: elements without fixed dimensions. Images, ad blocks and banners that are inserted later make the page shift and cause a poor CLS.
Finally, many business owners only look at the score on desktop. That often looks good. On mobile, where your visitors are, the picture is usually different.
How to approach it
Start in Google Search Console with the report on Core Web Vitals. There you can see which groups of pages score good, moderate or poor on mobile and desktop. Then test a few important pages in PageSpeed Insights for concrete points for improvement.
Tackle the biggest win first. Compress images and use modern formats such as WebP. Give images fixed dimensions. Remove plugins and scripts that bring nothing. Let scripts that are not needed straight away load later.
Also look at your hosting. A slow server makes every other improvement less effective. Caching and a good hosting provider do a lot.
Measure again after every change and give it a few weeks. Speed is part of technical SEO, but it belongs just as much with a website that brings in enquiries. Also read about crawling and indexing, the other technical foundation.
Frequently asked questions
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What is a good score for Core Web Vitals?
A page scores well if LCP is within 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1. Google looks at at least three quarters of real visits. A page that scores well on all three gets the status passed.
Why does my PageSpeed score differ from Search Console?
PageSpeed Insights runs a test measurement in a simulated environment, while Search Console shows data from real visitors over 28 days. That is why they can differ. The data from real visitors is what counts for Google.
What replaces INP?
INP replaced First Input Delay in 2024. Where FID only measured the first interaction, INP looks at all interactions during a visit. That gives a better picture of how quickly a page really responds.
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