A fast site keeps visitors and helps search rankings. Google measures speed and usability with three main metrics called Core Web Vitals.
The three metrics
- LCP (largest contentful paint): How long the main content takes to appear. A good threshold is about 2.5 seconds.
- INP (interaction to next paint): How quickly the page responds when you press a button. The target is under about 200 milliseconds.
- CLS (cumulative layout shift): Whether content jumps while loading. The target is below 0.1.
How to improve them
- Serve images at the right size and in modern formats (WebP/AVIF). See optimizing photos for the web.
- Remove unnecessary plugins and scripts. This is the most common cause of slowness on sites built from ready themes and many plugins.
- Use a fast server; see hosting types.
- Give images and ad slots fixed dimensions so content does not jump.
Measuring
Use the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console and PageSpeed Insights; the tools are covered in measuring with Analytics and Search Console.
This site is published as lightweight, pre-built pages, so speed starts good. Our web design and SEO services treat speed together.