Most people leave a website that feels slow – especially on a phone with a weak signal in a parking lot. Google knows this, so it measures how real visitors experience your website and uses it as one of many ranking signals. These measurements are called Core Web Vitals.
The three numbers
LCP – Largest Contentful Paint
How long it takes until the main content – usually the big headline or hero image – is visible. Good: 2.5 seconds or less.
INP – Interaction to Next Paint
How quickly the page reacts when someone taps a button or opens a menu. Good: 200 milliseconds or less. INP replaced the older FID metric in 2024.
CLS – Cumulative Layout Shift
How much the page jumps around while it loads – the reason you sometimes tap the wrong button. Good: 0.1 or less.
Why it matters for a local business
Speed is not only about rankings. A fast, stable page simply converts better: more people stay, read and call. For a local service business, a second or two can be the difference between a call and a visitor who taps “back” and calls your competitor.
The most common problems we fix
- Huge images. Photos straight from a camera or phone, several megabytes each. Modern formats (WebP, AVIF) and correct sizes often cut the weight by 80 % or more.
- Page builders and plugins. Each one adds scripts and styles to every page – even where they are not used.
- Too many third-party scripts. Chat widgets, trackers and embedded feeds that load before your content.
- Web fonts from other servers. Hosting fonts locally and loading only what is needed helps.
- Missing image dimensions. The main cause of layout shift – easy to fix.
- Slow or overloaded hosting without caching.
How to check your website
Open PageSpeed Insights, enter your address and look at the mobile results. The “Discover what your real users are experiencing” section shows real-world data when Google has enough of it; the Lighthouse scores below are a lab test.
Not sure what the numbers mean for you? We include speed in every free website review – and websites on our own platform are built to pass Core Web Vitals from day one.
