How fast should a small business website load?
Core Web Vitals in plain English: the speed thresholds Google publishes for LCP, INP and CLS, how to test your site, and what usually slows it down.
Read →Glossary
What is Core Web Vitals?
Also called: CWV, Web Vitals, page experience.
Core Web Vitals are Google's attempt to measure whether a page feels good to use, based on data from real Chrome users. There are three: Largest Contentful Paint (how fast the main content appears), Interaction to Next Paint (how quickly the page reacts when you tap) and Cumulative Layout Shift (whether things jump around while loading).
Google's ‘good’ thresholds are an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, an INP of 200 milliseconds or less and a CLS of 0.1 or less. To pass, a page needs to hit all three for at least 75% of visits.
They form part of Google's page experience signals. They matter, but they do not outrank relevant, helpful content; a fast page about the wrong thing still will not rank.
Why it matters for your business
The numbers are really about customers: a page that loads slowly, lags when tapped or jumps so they hit the wrong button is one people leave. Passing Core Web Vitals is a good sign your site is not quietly losing people on mobile.
Example. A groomer's Search Console report shows most pages failing on mobile because of a huge uncompressed homepage photo. Resizing and compressing it brings LCP down into the ‘good’ range.
Related terms
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) · INP (Interaction to Next Paint) · CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) · Page speed · Lighthouse
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