Tuna What Are Core Web Vitals? 7 Practical Ways to Speed Up Your Site
A slow site loses visitors in the first few seconds. Google measures this experience with three core metrics it calls Core Web Vitals, and treats them as part of the page experience signals considered in search ranking. In this post we explain what the three metrics mean and which steps actually make your site faster.
Three metrics: LCP, INP and CLS
- LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How long it takes for the largest content element (usually the main image or heading) to appear. Good: 2.5 seconds or less.
- INP (Interaction to Next Paint): How quickly the page responds when a visitor clicks a button or opens a menu. It replaced FID in 2024. Good: 200 milliseconds or less.
- CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Unexpected movement of elements while the page loads — the reason text jumps while you read or you tap the wrong button. Good: 0.1 or less.
The goal is to meet these values for at least 75 percent of visits.
How to measure your site
The most reliable source is the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console, which shows real-user data. To test a single page quickly, use PageSpeed Insights; it shows real-user data (when available) and a lab measurement.
7 practical ways to speed up your site
- Serve images at the right size in modern formats. Use WebP or AVIF and provide sizes per screen (srcset). On most sites this is the biggest win.
- Prioritize the main image. Do not lazy-load the large image at the top of the page; give it priority instead. Lazy-load images further down.
- Reserve space for images and embeds. Setting width and height prevents layout shifts (CLS) while the page loads.
- Load fonts wisely. Self-host them, load only the weights you use and preload the critical one.
- Cut unnecessary JavaScript. Unused plugins, heavy sliders and too many third-party scripts hurt INP. Question whether each script is really needed.
- Use caching and compression. Server-side caching, browser caching and Brotli/Gzip compression noticeably speed up repeat visits.
- Choose the right hosting. If server response time (TTFB) is high, front-end improvements have limited effect.
Speed is not just for SEO
Improving Core Web Vitals helps rankings, but the real gain is on the visitor side: a fast, stable page is browsed longer, forms get filled more often and carts are abandoned less. On sites where most visitors are on mobile, the difference is felt immediately.
If you would like us to review your site's speed and SEO together, see our SEO & Website Performance service and our SEO packages.
