Core Web Vitals: How Site Speed Affects Rankings and Sales

Core Web Vitals is a set of metrics that search engines use to measure the real user experience. A slow site loses both rankings and clients: every extra second of loading reduces conversion.

The Three Key Metrics

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — how quickly the main content appears. Target: < 2.5 s.
• INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — responsiveness to user actions. Target: < 200 ms.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — how much the layout jumps around as it loads. Target: < 0.1.

What Slows a Site Down

• Heavy, unoptimized images
• Excess JavaScript and third-party scripts
• No reserved space for content (which causes layout shifts)
• A slow server and a lack of caching

How to Speed It Up

Compress images to WebP/AVIF, lazy-load secondary elements, split code by routes, use a modern framework (for example, Next.js), and cache responses. Optimization can often make a site 2–3 times faster.

Conclusion

Speed is not a technical whim — it is money. A site that passes Core Web Vitals ranks higher and brings in more leads.