Core Web Vitals were introduced in 2021 as part of Google’s page experience update and became a factor in the Search algorithm. However, many people are unsure about how much CWV truly affects SEO.
This uncertainty raises questions like, “Should Core Web Vitals be a top priority for SEO?” In this guide, we’ll explore this topic and provide practical steps to optimise Core Web Vitals for better performance and user satisfaction.
Core Web Vitals (CWV) do affect SEO, but their impact is minimal compared to factors like search intent, content relevance, and quality, which play a much larger role in rankings.
Google’s John Mueller emphasised this, stating:
“So just because your website is faster with regards to Core Web Vitals than some competitors doesn’t necessarily mean that …you will jump to position number one in the search results.”
This means that even if a site has excellent CWV scores, it won’t automatically outrank competitors if its content isn’t as relevant or authoritative.
Google also reinforced this in a page experience FAQ. It states:
“Keep in mind that getting good results in reports like Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report or third-party tools doesn’t guarantee that your pages will rank at the top of Google Search results; there’s more to great page experience than Core Web Vitals scores alone. These scores are meant to help you to improve your site for your users overall, and trying to get a perfect score just for SEO reasons may not be the best use of your time.”
It means that page experience (including CWV) is just one of many ranking signals. Factors like search intent, helpful content, and authority matter more. That’s why even a page with a subpar experience can still rank high if the content is strong and relevant.
Additionally, if you look at large brands and high-authority websites, many of them don’t score well on CWV but still rank highly. This is because authority and relevance are far more significant ranking factors than page speed or performance metrics.
That said, if you’re a relatively new website competing in a high-competition space, optimizing CWV is recommended. Since authority and backlinks take time to build, getting every possible ranking factor right – including page experience – can help improve your chances of ranking.
While CWV may not be a major ranking factor, it plays a crucial role in user experience.
A slow, unresponsive website leads to frustrated visitors who are more likely to leave before engaging with your content. Even if your SEO efforts bring in traffic, poor page experience can reduce conversions, making that traffic less valuable.
Optimising CWV helps keep users engaged, lowers bounce rates, and improves the likelihood that visitors take meaningful actions – whether that’s reading more content, signing up for a service, or making a purchase.
You might be wondering whether optimising CWV is worth it. Ideally, yes – but not for rankings. Instead, focus on CWV for a better user experience, as it directly impacts engagement, conversions, and time spent on your site.
That said, it’s important to prioritise the optimisations that make the biggest impact. Depending on your resources and time, you can decide if it’s worth the effort. If you choose to optimize CWV, keep reading for tips on how to improve it.
To summarise:
Core Web Vitals (CWV) have minimal impact on SEO, as factors like content relevance, search intent, and authority play a bigger role in rankings. However, CWV is crucial for user experience, which drives engagement and conversions by keeping visitors on-site and reducing frustration.
You can measure Core Web Vitals using tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse. We recommend using PageSpeed Insights, as it is easy to use and provides both lab and field data for a complete analysis of Core Web Vitals.
Here’s how to measure Core Web Vitals with PageSpeed Insights:
Another way to measure Core Web Vitals is with our free website monitoring tool, WebYes. Unlike tools like PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse, WebYes can evaluate the CWV for all pages on your website – not just a single page.
Check your Core Web Vitals and get actionable improvement tips with an audit here:
Core Web Vitals is one of the important performance metrics to monitor and optimise. Improving CWV involves focusing on the three key metrics: INP, CLS, and LCP. Let’s break down each one and explore practical tips to optimise them.
INP measures how quickly a page responds to user interactions, such as clicking or typing, across the entire page lifecycle. The target score is less than 200 milliseconds.
To improve your INP:
CLS measures the visual stability of your website. The target score is less than 0.1. A low CLS score ensures content doesn’t jump around as the page loads.
Here’s how to optimise CLS:
LCP measures how fast the main content of your page becomes visible. The target score is within 2.5 seconds.
To improve your LCP:
Improving Core Web Vitals is not a one-time effort – it requires continuous monitoring to ensure your website maintains optimal performance. Testing every page manually with tools like Google PageSpeed Insights can be time-consuming. That’s where WebYes comes in.
With our free tool, you can monitor Core Web Vitals for all your pages in one place, making it easier to identify and fix issues efficiently. Beyond CWV, WebYes also monitor other performance issues that affect both SEO and user experience, giving you a complete view of your website’s health.
The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) tracks how quickly the most visible part of a page loads. For the best user experience, it should take under 2.5 seconds.
First Input Delay (FID) measures how quickly a webpage responds to a user’s first interaction, such as clicking a button or a link. Ideally, it should be less than 100 milliseconds.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) measures a webpage’s visual stability by tracking how much the elements move around as the page loads. A good CLS score is less than 0.1.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) measures how responsive a webpage is when users interact with it, such as clicking or typing. Ideally, it should be under 200 milliseconds.
The most important Core Web Vitals metrics are Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), and Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Article by
Melwyn holds a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science and has been writing professionally for over 4 years. He has a strong background in SEO and is certified in web accessibility from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). When he's not writing about website optimisation, you can find him enjoying a game of FIFA or exploring the open world of GTA.
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