What Are Core Web Vitals? Definition
Google's metrics for user experience: LCP, INP and CLS.
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are three key metrics Google uses to measure the user experience of a website. They are an official ranking factor.
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) – measures how long the largest visible element takes to load. Target: under 2.5 seconds
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint) – measures how quickly the page responds to user interactions. Target: under 200 ms
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) – measures visual stability. Target: under 0.1
Example: on a product page, the large hero image appears late and a cookie banner pushes the text down while the page loads. The late image hurts LCP, and the jumping content hurts CLS.
Optimizing Core Web Vitals
Improve your Core Web Vitals with image optimization, efficient code, server-side rendering and by avoiding layout shifts. Tools such as Google PageSpeed Insights and Search Console help with the analysis.
This entry covers the definition and target values. Our guide on optimizing Core Web Vitals goes through the fixes step by step.
Frequently asked questions
What are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to measure user experience: LCP for loading, INP for responsiveness and CLS for visual stability.
Why do Core Web Vitals matter for SEO?
Core Web Vitals are an official Google ranking factor. Pages that load slowly, respond late or shift while loading offer a worse user experience.
What are the target values for Core Web Vitals?
LCP should be under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 ms and CLS under 0.1.
What is an example of a Core Web Vitals problem?
A product page whose hero image appears late and whose text jumps down when a banner loads has weak LCP and CLS values.