Page speed and Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google’s three measures of how fast and stable a page feels to real visitors. PageSpeed Insights is Google’s free tool that tests a page and gives it a score out of 100.
Why it matters
Section titled “Why it matters”Slow pages lose visitors before they’ve seen anything, especially on mobile. Page experience is also one of the things Google takes into account in search.
The three measures
Section titled “The three measures”| Measure | What it means | Good |
|---|---|---|
| LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) | How long the main content takes to appear | 2.5 seconds or less |
| INP (Interaction to Next Paint) | How quickly the page responds when you tap or click | 200 milliseconds or less |
| CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) | How much the page jumps around while loading | 0.1 or less |
How to check
Section titled “How to check”- Test any page at PageSpeed Insights. Look at the Mobile result first.
- In Search Console, the Core Web Vitals report shows which groups of pages are Good, Need improvement or Poor, based on real visitors.
- If you use Marketing Feed, the site speed section of your monthly report shows your mobile PageSpeed score, checked weekly. A mobile score under 50 is likely costing you enquiries.
The usual fixes
Section titled “The usual fixes”- Shrink images. Large photos are the most common cause. Resize them and use modern formats such as WebP.
- Set image sizes so the page doesn’t jump as images load.
- Remove what you don’t use: unused plugins, apps, chat widgets and tracking scripts all slow pages down.
- Use caching. On WordPress, a caching plugin. Shopify, Wix and Squarespace handle this for you.
- Check your hosting. Cheap shared hosting is often slow. Ask your host about faster plans.
Your developer can use the Diagnostics section of the PageSpeed Insights result as a to-do list.
Google’s guide
Section titled “Google’s guide”Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results (Google Search Central)