Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are the three metrics Google uses to measure how a page feels to real visitors. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) measures how quickly the main content loads, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how fast the page reacts to clicks and taps, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures how much the layout jumps while the page loads. INP replaced First Input Delay (FID) in March 2024, so older advice about FID now applies to INP. This category explains what each metric means, how the vitals connect to page speed, user experience, and Google's page experience signals, and why they still matter for rankings. The optimization guides focus on fixes you can apply yourself, such as making the largest element on the page load sooner or reserving space for images and ads so content stops shifting. Check your scores first in PageSpeed Insights or the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. When a metric is marked as needing improvement or poor, the guides here help you work out what to fix first. Core Web Vitals is part of the Technical SEO section. Go there for crawling, indexing, JavaScript SEO, and structured data, and stay here when the problem is speed, responsiveness, or visual stability. If you're new to the metrics, begin with the LCP and CLS optimization guides.