Core Web Vitals: what actually moves the needle
LCP, INP and CLS explained without the jargon, and the handful of fixes that make the biggest difference for business sites.
L
Lee
1 min read
Google uses three Core Web Vitals to judge how a page feels to real visitors. Here's what each one means and where the quick wins are.
The three metrics
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): how quickly the main content appears. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP): how quickly the page responds when someone taps or clicks. Aim for under 200 milliseconds. INP replaced First Input Delay in March 2024.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): how much things jump around while loading. Aim for under 0.1.
The fixes that matter most
- Serve the right image sizes. Oversized hero images are the most common LCP problem we see.
- Render on the server. Sending finished HTML beats waiting for JavaScript to build the page.
- Reserve space for images and embeds. Set dimensions so content doesn't shift when they load.
- Ship less JavaScript. Every third-party script competes with your visitors' taps and clicks.
Check your real-world scores in Google Search Console's Core Web Vitals report, not just a one-off Lighthouse run.