Understanding Web Vitals in Simple Terms

Web Vitals is a Google project that helps website owners understand and improve the quality of their web pages. It focuses on the key things that make a website user-friendly. Google has created this to simplify all the different ways we can measure a website’s performance and to help you focus on what matters most for your users.

Core Web Vitals: The Important Metrics

Core Web Vitals are the most important Web Vitals. These are the key metrics that apply to every web page and are important for a good user experience. They focus on three main areas: how quickly your page loads, how smoothly it interacts with users, and how stable the layout is as it loads.

Here are the current Core Web Vitals:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - Loading Speed:

• What it is: This measures how long it takes for the largest piece of content (like an image or a big block of text) to appear on the screen after the page starts loading.
• Good Score: This should happen within 2.5 seconds.

Interaction to Next Paint (INP) - Interactivity:

• What it is: This measures how quickly the page responds when you interact with it (like clicking a button or typing).
• Good Score: The response should be within 200 milliseconds.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) - Visual Stability:

• What it is: This measures how much the layout of the page shifts around as it loads. For example, if you're about to click a button and it suddenly moves, that’s a layout shift.
• Good Score: The page should have minimal shifts, with a score of 0.1 or less.

Why These Metrics Matter

• LCP: If your page loads quickly, users stay happy. If it’s slow, they might leave before they even see your content.
• INP: If your site responds quickly to interactions, it feels smooth and responsive. If it’s slow, users get frustrated.
• CLS: If your page’s layout is stable as it loads, it prevents users from accidentally clicking the wrong things, which makes the experience better.

Important Tips

• To make sure most of your users have a good experience, aim to meet these targets for 75% of your users, on both mobile and desktop devices.
• Remember, how fast your site feels can depend on many things: the user’s device, their internet speed, and how your site is built.

Other Useful Metrics

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): How long it takes for any part of the page to show up on the screen.

• Time to First Byte (TTFB): How long it takes for the first bit of data to be received from the server after a request.

• Total Blocking Time (TBT): How long your site is unresponsive to user actions while it’s loading.

Why It’s Important

These Core Web Vitals are not just about making users happy. Google uses them to help determine how high your site appears in search results. So, a better user experience can lead to more visitors finding your site.

In summary, Core Web Vitals are three key metrics that measure how fast your website loads, how quickly it responds to user actions, and how stable it is as it loads. By focusing on improving these areas, you can ensure a better experience for your users and potentially improve your site’s ranking in search results.