What Are Core Web Vitals and What Scores Should You Aim For?
Core Web Vitals are three metrics Google uses to measure page experience: Largest Contentful Paint (loading, good under 2.5 seconds), Interaction to Next Paint (responsiveness, good under 200 milliseconds) and Cumulative Layout Shift (visual stability, good under 0.1). Pass all three and your pages are in the healthy range.
What each metric actually measures
LCP is when your main content appears. INP is how fast the page reacts when someone taps or clicks. CLS is how much the page jumps around while loading. None of them is a direct ranking boost, but failing all three drags rankings down, especially on mobile.
Check your scores free
Run any URL through the free Core Web Vitals Checker. Fix the worst metric first: usually oversized images for LCP, render blocking scripts for INP, and images without size attributes for CLS.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Core Web Vitals directly affect ranking?
They are a small ranking factor, but they strongly affect user behavior, which affects ranking.
What is a passing score?
LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms, CLS under 0.1.
Related reading
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