Unsolicited SEO tip: Don't base Web Vitals analysis on Lighthouse scores

When evaluating Core Web Vitals scores make sure you're using the right tools. Focussing on Lighthouse scores will give you a skewed view of your performance against CWV.

This is because CLS only makes up 5% of the Lighthouse score, 3 times less than Speed Index and Time to interactive, metrics which will not be factored in to the page experience update (more info on Lighthouse here).

It is more than possible to have a Lighthouse score in the 90s, but then have a site that significantly underperforms against CLS (I've seen more than one example!). This is why it is important to use field metrics, as they are based on actual customers interacting with a client's site.

Focussing on the scores in Search Console or even going the next step and tracking via GA or a dedicated performance monitoring tool will ultimately provide you with a better basis for optimisation than the Lab data provided by Lighthouse.