Imagine your website as a sleek sports car. If it’s slow, clunky, and prone to unexpected “bumps,” visitors won’t enjoy the ride—and they’ll leave fast. The chances of users potentially leaving your website increases by up to 32% if your site is not fast, friendly, and aesthetically pleasing enough.
That’s where Core Web Vitals come in. These three key metrics—page speed, responsiveness, and visual stability—act like the engine, tires, and suspension. If you optimize them, you’ll offer a smooth user experience and rank higher in search engine rankings. If your website is like the sleek, slow car, don’t worry, you’re in the right place to learn more about how to optimize your site for better rankings.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of performance benchmarks that Google uses to gauge how user-friendly your site truly is. They zero in on its speed (how quickly content loads), responsiveness (how responsive the site is to user interactions), and visual stability (how stable the layout remains while loading).
The three metrics specifically include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP) which we’ll go over shortly.
You may discover that your website’s loading speed gets slower after about a week of taking your beautifully created content online. Of course, this has an impact on the bounce rate of the website as visitors will leave when the site experience is poor.
This is when you should start considering the Core Web Vitals if you haven’t already.
Moreover, more brands are keying in to the secrets of optimizing Core Web Vitals as Chrome’s reports reveal that more than 50.1% of websites possess good Core Web Vitals Scores. If you want to keep up (and rank well), you need to make sure your site meets or surpasses those benchmarks.
Understanding Core Web Vitals Metrics
Now, let’s break down the three Core Web Vitals Metrics:
1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP reflects how long it takes for the largest piece of content (like a hero image or a big block of text) to load on the screen. Aim for 2.5 seconds or less for optimal performance. Because over 60% of sites now have decent LCP scores, you’ll want to keep yours within this threshold to boost conversions.
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2. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
CLS measures how much the on-screen layout shifts while a page is loading. If the CLS score is high, then it means that a different element may load instead of the intended one when a user clicks a button on your mobile site.
A site with an optimized CLS score will tend to not have a shifting layout during the loading of its mobile version.
Strive for a score of 0.1 or below so your users don’t click the wrong button by accident. With nearly 78.2% of websites meeting good CLS scores, your site must also be stable to compete.
3. Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
INP metric replaced the First Input Delay (FID) metric on March 12, 2024 and unlike FID, measures not only the first user interaction but all interactions made during a page visit.
For a good score, shoot for 200ms or less. It’s about delivering smooth, near-instant feedback whenever a user clicks, taps, or types. Over 85% of sites score well here, so don’t fall behind.
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Measuring Core Web Vitals
Excellent ways to measure Core Web Vitals include the following:
Using PageSpeed Insights
Pingdom and GTmetris are good online tools for measuring Core Web Vitals but you can also make use of Google PageSpeed Insights. You only need to input your website’s URL and click the “Analyze” button.
After the site analysis, you will get to see a detailed breakdown of your website’s Core Web Vitals of your site and some recommendations for improvement.
Chrome User Experience Report
In Google Search Console, the Chrome User Experience Report provides real-world data on how your pages perform. Go to the “Experience” section, then select “Core Web Vitals” to see how users experience your site in real time.
Core Web Vitals Chrome Extension
If you’d like an even quicker method, install the Web Vitals Chrome extension. With one click, you can view your LCP, CLS, and INP while browsing your pages—no additional setup needed.
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How to Optimize Your Site’s Core Web Vitals
Let’s now discuss ways to improve your site’s Core Web Vitals for better site rankings:
1.Optimize Your Images
It’s all wonderful to use high-res images on your website but if you’re not mindful, they can hamper website performance. You need to ensure that your images are well-compressed.
For instance, you can first optimize images before uploading them to your site instead of simply using server-side solutions.
Google’s WebP format retains image details while reducing image sizes so you can use it for complex images. Moreover, WebP images can be up to 30% smaller than corresponding JPEG images.
This means that they can be better compressed to smaller file sizes thereby reducing page loading time and saving bandwidth. Use can use converters such as Squoosh or WordPress image optimization plugins like ShortPixel Image Optimizer, EWWW Image Optimizer, Smush, and Imagify to compress and convert them to WebP. These smaller file sizes reduce load times. For logos or icons, SVG is a great option to keep things razor-sharp without slowing everything down.
2. Utilize a Content Delivery Network
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can store clones of your website in multiple in global locations. Visitors automatically load data from the nearest server, leading to faster content delivery. This especially helps with big resources like videos, images, or large scripts.
3. Optimize Your Site’s LCP
- Reduce Third-Party Script Usage: Third-party scripts tend to reduce page speed by as much as 34 ms.
- Use Efficient Hosting: A better web hosting can improve page loading times especially if you have reached the upper limits of your hosting plan.
- Selectively Implement Lazy Loading: Lazy loading can optimize the loading of images and improve both page loading speed and LCP. You can either install Jetpack or Smush plugin on WordPress or add the attribute to enable lazy loading. But you should not lazy load images above the fold (i.e elements that appear first). Otherwise, you will increase LCP time.
- Take Out Large Page Elements: You can speed up your LCP if you remove large page elements and features such as unnecessary images.
- Implement Caching: Caching is a process that stores a copy of a page for each visitor and quickly presents it when needed rather than generating it from scratch.
4. Improve Your Site’s INP Score
- Minimize or Defer the Loading of Javascript: Users will find it difficult to interact with your webpage while their browser is loading JS. Rather, you can defer the loading of JavaScript and load other page content first.
- Break Down or Defer Code Execution: Breaking down long tasks into smaller chunks can help the browser load pages more quickly.
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5. Minimize CLS
- Reserve Space for Ad Elements: Ads can push and displace your content when they suddenly appear if you do not have a reserved space for them.
- Add New Content Below the Fold: If you dynamically add content such as banners at the top of the page, other content may shift down upon loading.
Periodically Conduct Site Tests and Updates
Use Lighthouse, CrUX, or other tools to spot new issues and preserve high Core Web Vitals. Regular tune-ups keep your site performing smoothly.
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Optimize Your Site’s Core Web Vitals and Improve its Performance
Focusing on Core Web Vitals—LCP, CLS, and INP—is critical for delivering a seamless user experience and climbing in search results. By compressing images, leveraging CDNs, refining code, and tackling layout shifts, you’ll craft a snappy, user-friendly site that stands out. In the end, better performance translates to increased engagement, higher rankings, and satisfied visitors who return for more.
If you’re keen to enhance your understanding of SEO and elevate your online presence, visit Exclusive Blueprint. Our blog is brimming with practical insights, current trends, and essential tools designed to help you master search engine optimization, refine your strategies, and increase your visibility.
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