Do Core Web Vitals affect Google rankings?

Yes, they are part of Google's page experience signals. They matter most when competing pages are otherwise similar, and they strongly affect conversions.

What is a good LCP, INP and CLS score?

LCP under 2.5 seconds, INP under 200 milliseconds and CLS under 0.1, measured at the 75th percentile of real visits.

Why does my site pass in PageSpeed Insights but fail in Search Console?

Lab tests run one simulated visit. Search Console uses real-user data from many devices and networks, which is usually slower.

Why is my website slow? A plain-English guide to fixing Core Web Vitals

By GenRise Tech9 October 20262 min read

A slow website costs you twice: visitors leave before it loads, and Google ranks it lower. Core Web Vitals are Google's way of measuring that slowness, and they are worth understanding even if you never touch code.

Here is what each metric means, the usual causes and the fixes that work.

The three numbers that matter

LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): how long until the main content appears. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint): how quickly the page responds when someone taps or clicks. Aim for under 200 milliseconds.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): how much the page jumps around while loading. Aim for under 0.1.

Google uses field data from real Chrome users, so check the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console, not just a one-off lab test.

Fixing a slow LCP

Serve the hero image in a modern format (AVIF or WebP), sized for the screen, and preload it.
Never lazy-load the image at the top of the page.
Use a CDN and server-side or static rendering so HTML arrives fast.
Self-host fonts and remove render-blocking CSS and scripts.

Fixing a poor INP

Poor INP almost always means too much JavaScript running on the main thread. Chat widgets, tag managers, heavy sliders and animation libraries are the usual suspects.

Remove third-party scripts that are not earning their place.
Load the remaining ones after the page is interactive.
Break long tasks up and move heavy work off the main thread.
Ship less JavaScript: server-render what does not need to be interactive.

Fixing layout shift

Give images, videos and embeds explicit width and height.
Reserve space for banners, ads and cookie notices before they load.
Use font-display settings and size-matched fallback fonts.
Do not insert content above what the visitor is already reading.

When a rebuild beats a tune-up

If a site is built on a heavy page builder with dozens of plugins, tuning can only go so far. Sometimes a lean rebuild is cheaper than months of fighting the platform. We usually start with an audit that shows which path costs less for your site.

Speed is one part of the technical SEO checklist. If your platform is the bottleneck, compare Next.js and WordPress, or ask us about web development.