What Are Core Web Vitals and Why Are They Important? 

Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics that measure the loading performance, responsiveness, and visual stability of a web page. 

These metrics contribute to the user’s overall experience when visiting your website and are included in Google’s ‘page experience’ ranking signals - which makes them pretty important.
 

So, let’s take a look at what Core Web Vitals are and why it’s important to keep an eye on them and optimise your site with these metrics in mind.

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Core Web Vitals Metrics

There are three Core Web Vitals metrics that measure different aspects of a page’s performance. These are:  

1. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)

LCP measures how long it takes for the largest piece of visible content to load on a webpage. This is usually an image, video, or block of text.
 

Your LCP should be within 2.5 seconds of the page starting to load.
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2. INP (Interaction to Next Paint)

INP assesses how responsive your site is by measuring how long it takes for your website to respond to an interaction from a user. For example, if a user clicks the menu button, it will measure how long it takes for your site to register and respond to that click. 

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Your INP should be under 200 milliseconds.
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3. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift)

CLS measures the visual stability of a webpage. While a website is rendering, it can cause layout shifts. If you’ve ever visited a website that loaded but then ‘glitched’ and shifted the layout slightly, this is a CLS.
 

Considerable layout shifts can cause a poor experience as it leads to accidental clicks, broken formatting, and a generally frustrating experience for the user.
 

Your CLS score should be less than 0.1.
 

It’s important to note that CLS only measures unexpected layout shifts. Purposeful layout shifts, such as revealing more products after a user clicks ‘view more products’, don’t contribute to your CLS score.

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Why Core Web Vitals Are Important 

Google ‘highly recommend[s] site owners achieve good Core Web Vitals for success with Search’. There are a couple of reasons for this.

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Performance in Search Results 

Core Web Vitals affect your user experience. This can have an impact on your performance in the search results, since Google’s ranking systems reward sites that provide a good user experience.

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Improves Customer Retention

Not only do Core Web Vitals contribute to your success in the search results, but they also ensure your customers have a satisfactory experience on your website.
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Websites that are slow, glitchy, and frustrating to use can prevent people from returning or converting. By making sure your site is fast, responsive, and easy to use, you increase the chances of a customer returning to your site or making a purchase.

How To View Your Core Web Vitals

You can find data on your Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console. We recommend setting up Google Search Console if you haven’t already, as it provides a significant amount of useful data about your website - Core Web Vitals included.
 

To find Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console, log into your account and under ‘Experience’ in the menu panel, there is a section labelled ‘Core Web Vitals’. In here, you will find performance reports of all your site’s URLs - for both mobile and desktop versions. 

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Each report shows details on your URLs, including the issue, its severity, and how many URLs are affected by it. 

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Need Help Improving Your Core Web Vitals? 

If you’ve noticed your Core Web Vitals aren’t up to scratch, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the experts. We can help improve your Core Web Vitals to increase your chances of ranking well in the search results and ensure your customers have a positive experience on your site.