Core Web Vitals: How to make your site faster and better

Core Web Vitals are Google's way of measuring the real user experience on your site. They affect both rankings and conversion, which makes them one of the most tangible technical wins you can chase.

LCP — Largest Contentful Paint

LCP measures how fast the main content appears. Aim for under 2.5 seconds. The usual culprits are large images, slow servers and render-blocking resources.

INP — Interaction to Next Paint

INP measures how fast the page responds to interaction. Under 200 ms is the goal. Heavy JavaScript is often the problem — so trim it to the bone.

CLS — Cumulative Layout Shift

CLS measures visual stability. Nothing is more annoying than a button that shifts just as you tap it. Reserve space for images and ads so the layout doesn't jump.

Where to start

Start by measuring in Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights. Prioritise the pages with the most traffic. Core Web Vitals are a natural part of any technical SEO effort — and always caught in a thorough SEO audit.