What Is Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are Google's metrics for measuring user experience on websites: LCP (loading speed), INP (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability). They directly affect search rankings.
How Web Vitals Works
Google uses three Core Web Vitals in its ranking algorithm: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, should be under 2.5s), Interaction to Next Paint (INP, under 200ms), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS, under 0.1). Measure them with Lighthouse, PageSpeed Insights, or web-vitals.js.
Key Concepts
- LCP — Largest Contentful Paint — how quickly the main content element becomes visible
- INP — Interaction to Next Paint — how responsive the page is to user input
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Core Web Vitals affect SEO?
Yes. Google uses CWV as a ranking signal. Pages with good vitals get a slight ranking boost over pages with poor scores, all else being equal.