Core Web Vitals in Plain English (What Google's Actually Measuring)

Google has three specific measurements for whether your site "feels good" to use. They're called Core Web Vitals and they're a real ranking factor. The names are terrible acronyms but the concepts are simple:

• LCP — how fast does the main thing on the page show up
• CLS — does stuff jump around while it's loading (annoying)
• INP — when you tap something, how fast does it respond

That's it. That's the whole thing. Everything else is details.

LCP: Largest Contentful Paint

Basically, when does the biggest thing on the page (usually the hero image or headline) actually finish loading. Google wants this under 2.5 seconds.

Usually broken by: - Huge unoptimized images - Slow hosting - Blocking JavaScript loading before the page renders - 12 different web fonts

Usually fixed by: - Compressing images (WebP/AVIF, aim for under 200KB for hero images) - Not using more than one font family - Getting a real host, not the $1.99/month special - Removing unused plugins

CLS: Cumulative Layout Shift

You know when you're reading an article, you're about to click a link, and then an ad loads and the button shifts down and you tap the ad instead? That's layout shift. Google hates it. So do humans.

Google wants CLS under 0.1.

Usually broken by: - Images without explicit width and height - Fonts that swap in and push text around - Ads or embeds that load after the page and shove content around

Usually fixed by: - Set width and height on every image (yes, in the HTML) - Use font-display: optional or preload your main font - Reserve space for ads before they load

INP: Interaction to Next Paint

When you tap or click something, how long until anything visually responds. This one replaced FID a while back. Google wants it under 200 milliseconds.

Usually broken by: - Way too much JavaScript - Heavy tracking scripts (looking at you, 8 different chat widgets) - Slow servers

Usually fixed by: - Deleting analytics or trackers you don't actually look at - Not loading 12 things at once when the page opens - Lazy-loading stuff that's below the fold

How to check yours

The fastest way: Google PageSpeed Insights. Paste in your URL, hit "Mobile," scroll down to Core Web Vitals. You get all three numbers plus specific things to fix, ranked by how much they matter.

Our free audit also flags speed issues in plainer language.

The "80/20" fix list

If you only do three things:

1. Compress every image on your site. Squoosh.app is free and does this in the browser. Aim for under 200KB for hero-sized images, under 100KB for normal photos. 2. Delete plugins/scripts you don't use. Every one adds load time. Chat widget you never respond to? Delete it. Analytics you never open? Delete it. 3. Get real hosting. Cheap shared hosting is often the actual culprit and no amount of optimization fixes a slow server.

Those three things fix most sites' Core Web Vitals scores. You don't have to hire a "performance consultant."

What passing looks like

Green across LCP, CLS, INP on the mobile PageSpeed report. That's the goal. Yellow is fine-ish. Red means Google is docking you.

If you're stuck in the red after doing the three things above, either your theme is heavy or your host is bad. That's usually the answer.