Core web vitals are a set of three metrics that Google uses to evaluate and measure a website’s user experience. It’s an update from Google that came in 2021 to signal to website owners that Google takes the responsiveness, interactivity, and stability of a page into consideration while ranking pages.
The three core web vitals are:
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP):
It measures how fast the largest element on our page loads. A good page should load its largest content, such as images, videos, or a text block, in under 2.5 seconds. If the load speed exceeds 4 seconds, it requires attention. Some ways in which you can improve your LCP are by using a great hosting, reducing the file sizes of images, converting them to lightweight versions like WebP, and avoiding unnecessary code.
- Interaction to Next Paint (INP):
This is a metric that shows how responsive your page is when a user interacts with it. After a user comes to a page, when they click on any button like learning more, menu, add to cart, book now, etc., the next visual frame should appear within 100 milliseconds or 0.1 seconds. If it takes more time, it might dilute the user experience. You can improve INP by removing over CSS and JavaScript on the page and breaking complex operations into simple tasks.
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLF):
CLF checks how stable your webpage is when a user visits. If the page is unstable, like when the user comes to your page and scrolls down, and suddenly a pop-up appears and the whole page comes down, it ruins the user experience. The ideal CLF of a page is 0.1; anything more than that is not for your website. To have a good CLF, you need to specify the exact sizes of your images on the site, avoid unnecessary pop-ups, and have a reserved area for third-party ads if you have an AdSense account.
There are other web vitals like mobile friendliness, secure HTTPS, but Google takes these three as the important. If you want your website to rank better, you should definitely have good scores in these areas. You can check these metrics using Google Search Console, Google Page Speed Test, Lighthouse, and a few other tools.
A Daily Life Example to Understand these Core Web Vitals Better:
Imagine you went to a grocery shop to buy some groceries in the early morning. Your wife told you to come within 15 minutes with all the groceries because she has to cook breakfast for her school-going children.
When you arrived, the shop owner was just opening the door, and the door was old, and it was taking too long to open. What you will feel, on one side, is the pressure of your wife’s order, and on the other side, frustration with the shop owner. Will you wait till the old door opens, or will you go to another shop? This is LCP.
You have patience and waited. You have taken all the required groceries and come to the billing counter. The shop owner is a lazy guy; he is scrolling the his phone while calculating the bill. It’s taking more time. You are again feeling frustrated. This is INP.
While he is preparing the bill, you forgot that you did not take salt. And went to the shelves, while taking the salt packet, the shelves being old and broken at one felt down, and all the salt packets were down. This is CLS.
Somehow, you managed to get out of that shop with all the groceries, but it took you 30 minutes. While walking home, you were afraid of what your wife would say, how the children would go to school on time, and you would also get to the office by 15 minutes.
Whatever might have happened to you at home but will you ever go to that shop again? You will think multiple times before giving another chance. The same goes for the user’s experience on our website.
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou