Core Web Vitals and website speed: what LCP, INP and CLS mean

⚡ Why speed affects business

A slow site loses visitors before they read the first sentence, especially on a phone. Speed is also part of the user experience Google takes into account. It is not the only ranking factor, and excellent content can rank with average speed, but among similar pages the faster one has an edge, and a faster page almost always sells better.

📏 Three metrics and their good values

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how fast the largest element appears, usually the main image or heading. Good is up to 2.5 seconds.
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how fast the site reacts after a click or tap. Good is up to 200 milliseconds. INP replaced the earlier FID.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much content moves while loading. Good is up to 0.1.

🔬 How to measure

Open PageSpeed Insights, enter the address and look at real-world data (if available), not only the lab score. Search Console has a Core Web Vitals report for the whole site. Measure the mobile version, because it is the one that counts.

🛠️ What to fix first

1. Images. Use WebP or AVIF, the right size and lazy loading. See web images.
2. Hosting and caching. A slow server kills everything else. See choosing hosting.
3. JavaScript. Remove or defer scripts not needed immediately.
4. Fonts. Fewer families and weights, or system fonts.
5. Image and ad dimensions, so the page does not jump (CLS).
6. Plugins and themes. On WordPress they are the most common cause of slowness: how to speed up WordPress.

🎯 A realistic goal

Do not chase a perfect 100 at any cost. The goal is green Core Web Vitals on mobile and a page that feels fast. Our sites are built so speed is built in: no external fonts, minimal JavaScript and optimised images. More about keeping it fast on the website maintenance page.