Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that evaluate key components of page performance, such as loading speed, interactivity, and visual stability. By improving these elements, developers can ensure their websites are optimized for users, resulting in a better overall user experience.
Core Web Vitals are a set of specific ranking factors that Google considers important for the overall user experience of a website.
Core Web Vitals consist of three specific measurements of page load speed and user interaction:
In short, Core Web Vitals are a subset of factors that are part of Google's "Page Experience" score (basically Google's way of evaluating the overall UX of your page).
You can find your website's Core Web Vitals data in the "Enhancements" section of your Google Search Console account.
LCP is the time a page takes to load from the perspective of an actual user. In other words, it's the time from clicking a link until the majority of the content is displayed on the screen.
LCP differs from other page load metrics. Many other page load metrics (such as TTFB and First Contextual Paint) do not necessarily represent what it is like for users to open a web page.
LCP, on the other hand, focuses on what really matters when it comes to page load speed: the ability to see and interact with your page.
You can check your LCP score with Google PageSpeed Insights. This is particularly helpful for identifying areas where you can make improvements.
It's recommended to check the LCP data in your Google Search Console. Why? Well, like Google PageSpeed Insights, the data in Search Console comes from the Chrome User Experience Report. However, unlike PageSpeed Insights, you can see LCP data across your entire website. So instead of randomly analyzing individual pages, you get a list of URLs that are good, bad, or somewhere in between.
Google has specific LCP guidelines. They divide LCP speed into three categories:
In short, you want every page on your website to reach LCP within 2,5 seconds. This can be a real challenge for large websites or pages with many features.
Therefore, the LCP on this page is 5,1 seconds (which is considered "bad").
This shows that improving LCP isn't as simple as installing a CDN. In this case, you might actually need to remove some images from the page and clean up the page's code.
Hard work? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Absolutely.
A PageSpeed study has shown that each third-party script slows down a page by 34 ms.
Better hosting = faster overall loading times (including LCP).
Lazy loading ensures that images are only loaded when someone scrolls down your page. This means you can reach LCP (Lazy Computing Point) much faster.
Google PageSpeed Insights shows you if your page contains an element that slows down your page's LCP (Last Page Rendering Program).
Bulky CSS can significantly delay LCP times.
Next, we'll take a look at Google's second Core Web Vital: First Input Delay (FID).
At this point, your side has reached FCP. But the question is:
Well, that's exactly what FID measures: the time it takes users to actually interact with your site.
Examples of interactions include:
Google considers FID important because it takes into account how users actually interact with websites. And, as with FCP, there are specific criteria for what constitutes an acceptable FID.
Yes, FID technically measures how long it takes for something to happen on a page. In that sense, it's a page speed score. But it goes beyond that and measures the time users need to actually do something on your page.
For a page that consists 100% of content (like a blog post or news article), FID probably doesn't play a significant role. The only real "interaction" is scrolling down or zooming in on the page.
In fact, my Search Console isn't even reporting FID for my website. I think that's because I don't have any login pages or other pages where someone would have to enter something immediately.
But for a login page, a registration page, or any other page where users need to click on something quickly, FID is extremely important.
It's nearly impossible for users to interact with a page while the browser is loading JavaScript. Therefore, minifying or delaying JavaScript on your page is key to FID (Full Interface Delay).
As with FCP, third-party scripts (such as Google Analytics, heatmaps, etc.) can have a negative impact on FID.
This helps content on your page load faster. This helps your users' browsers navigate through the loading of JS tasks even faster.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) refers to the stability of a page during the loading process (also known as "visual stability").
In other words, if elements on your page move during the loading process, you have a high CLS (Clause Rate). That's bad.
Instead, your page elements should remain fairly stable during the loading process. This way, users don't have to relearn where links, images, and fields are located once the page has fully loaded, or accidentally click on something.
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