Core Web Vitals Explained in Plain English

Core Web Vitals are three measurements Google uses to describe real user experience on a page: how fast it loads, how quickly it responds and how stable it looks.

1. LCP: Largest Contentful Paint

LCP measures how long the largest visible element, often a hero image or heading, takes to appear. A good score is 2.5 seconds or less. Improve it by compressing images, preloading the hero image and using fast hosting.

2. INP: Interaction to Next Paint

INP measures how quickly a page responds when someone clicks, taps or types. A good score is 200 milliseconds or less. Reduce long JavaScript tasks, remove unused scripts and avoid heavy work on the main thread.

3. CLS: Cumulative Layout Shift

CLS measures unexpected movement of content while the page loads. A good score is 0.1 or less. Set width and height on images and embeds, and reserve space for ads and banners.

4. How to measure

Use Google PageSpeed Insights for a quick report and the Search Console Core Web Vitals report for real visitor data. Lab tests and field data can differ.

5. A simple improvement plan

Fix the slowest and heaviest element first, retest, then move to the next. Small steady changes beat a risky rewrite.