Core Web Vitals
Core Web Vitals are 3 Google measurements of how a page feels to use: how fast the main content appears, how quickly it responds, and how much it jumps around while loading.
The 3 are Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift.
Google's targets are under 2.5 seconds, under 200 milliseconds, and under 0.1 respectively.
They're measured on real visits from real people, mostly on mobile, rather than in a lab on your office wifi.
They're a genuine ranking factor and a modest one, so a slow page with the best answer still outranks a fast page with a thin one.
Where they earn their keep is conversion, because a page that jumps as someone reaches for the call button loses the call.
Oversized images and heavy third-party scripts cause most of the failures I see.
What this means for you
Worth fixing because visitors feel it, and worth keeping in proportion as a ranking lever. Good content on a fast site is the combination, and speed alone isn't a strategy.
This one sits under Web design.
Related terms
Want to know how this looks on your account?
I'll look at what you've got and tell you where it stands, in the same plain terms.
Get in touch