What are Google
Core Web Vitals,
and why do they matter?

By Max Ikaheimo

September 3rd, 2024

Google Core Web Vitals are a set of metrics defined by Google, that determine the overall quality of your website in terms of performance and user experience. The Core Web Vital metrics are measured against real but anonymized user data, which Google gathers based on the actual users visiting your site.

So why are Core Web Vitals so important? It's quite simple really, better Core Web Vitals equal better success for organic search results. Of course it's not so black and white but generally, the better your Core Web Vitals are the better your chances of ranking higher on Google.

What are the
Core Web Vital metrics?

The Core Web Vitals are based on 3 main metrics, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction To Next Paint (INP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). While there are other important metrics that Google tracks (e.g. on PageSpeed Insights), only the three aforementioned metrics are used for the actual Core Web Vitals Assessment.

At a quick glance, these weird sounding metrics are not so self-evident, but if we examine them closer, it becomes obvious why they're so important and why Google favors sites that reach high scores for these metrics.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): LCP measures loading performance. What this means in practice is the time it takes to render the first image, text block or video after a user first lands on a page. For example, if you have an image as the first element on your website, LCP measures how long it takes to render that image.

• Interaction To Next Paint (INP): INP measures responsiveness based on user interaction (Clicking with a mouse, tapping on a device with a touchscreen or pressing a key on a keyboard). In simpler terms, it measures the time it takes for your site to become interactive once a user first enters it. For example: if a user tries to click a button on your website, but the button action does not happen immediately, your interaction to next paint is probably too high.

• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): CLS measures the visual stability of your website. In practice, it measures how much your website's layout will shift once it's fully loaded. A bad CLS score can occur if elements appear while your site loads which can cause previously loaded elements to shift within your screen, and change their position relative to your viewport. This is generally considered bad for user experience.

Why do Google
Core Web Vitals matter?

As mentioned previously, Core Web Vitals affect your website's performance on Google's search results. You can rank high in Google's results page without having great Core Web Vitals. However, if your site is working in a sector that's highly competitive, or there are lots of similar and relevant content available on the internet then Google will obviously favor sites with better Core Web Vital scores.

In addition to benefits for organic SEO, passing Core Web Vitals means that your site is generally of better quality, and users will have a better experience using your site. Having a better user experience will have indirect, but positive consequences for website user metrics such as engagement time, bounce rate etc.

Your brand is perceived in a better light when your website functions well. Websites are nowadays the first point of contact when users search information about your company.

You can check if your site passes Google Web Vitals on https://pagespeed.web.dev/