Core Web Vitals play a role in Google’s ranking algorithm, making them essential for anyone interested in improving their website’s visibility on search engine results pages (SERPs). And if you’ve ever wondered, “What is a bad page speed?”, Core Web Vitals hold the answer. Read on to learn what they are, how to measure them, and how to fix the issues that could be slowing your site down.
Core Web Vitals: The Small Business Owner’s Guide
- What Is Page Speed, and What Counts as a Bad Page Speed?
- Why Core Web Vitals Matter for Local SEO
- The Three Core Web Vitals
- How to Measure Core Web Vitals
- Common Causes of Bad Page Speed (and How to Fix Them)
- Mobile Performance and User Experience
- Hosting and Technical Considerations for Local Businesses
- Core Web Vitals and Google’s Ranking Algorithm
- The ROI of Improving Core Web Vitals
- Quick Wins for Non-Tech-Savvy Business Owners
Introduction to Core Web Vitals
In today’s digital world, delivering an excellent user experience is crucial for any business looking to succeed online. Core Web Vitals are a set of specific metrics created by Google to measure the fundamental parts of user experience on a webpage: loading performance, interactivity, and visual stability. These are critical factors in whether visitors have a pleasant experience on your site.
For local business owners, paying attention to Core Web Vitals is especially important. When potential customers search for services or products in their area, a site that loads quickly, responds swiftly, and stays visually stable encourages them to stay longer and take action. That leads to happier customers, more foot traffic, and more sales.
And with more and more people using their phones to search for local businesses, optimizing Core Web Vitals becomes even more critical. Mobile users expect fast, responsive pages, and businesses that deliver them gain a real competitive advantage in local markets.
Ready, REBELS? Let’s get to it…
1. What Is Page Speed, and What Counts as a Bad Page Speed?
Page speed is a measure of how quickly a web page loads and displays content when someone visits it. A slow page speed can hurt your website in many ways. It can reduce the number of visitors you get, send people away before they engage with your content, and ultimately reduce revenue.
So, what is a bad page speed? We’re happy you asked. You know how bull riders are considered exceptional if they can stay on a wild bull for 8 seconds? Well, your website doesn’t get anywhere near that long. A long-standing rule of thumb is that pages should load in about 3 seconds or less. Anything slower risks visitors giving up and heading to a competitor.
Today, Google measures page speed more precisely with Core Web Vitals. A page has a bad page speed when it misses Google’s “good” targets: the main content takes longer than 2.5 seconds to load, the page takes longer than 200 milliseconds to respond to clicks and taps, or the layout shifts around as it loads. We’ll break those down in a moment.
Why Is Page Speed Important?
I don’t think I need to explain why page speed is important. I’ve bounced very quickly from websites that don’t load fast enough for me, and I bet you have, too. We live in a society that simply can’t handle waiting for anything anymore. Your business can’t afford a bad page speed. It will absolutely affect your bottom line.
That said, if your messaging isn’t clear to your potential customers, your page speed won’t matter much at all. Read about How The StoryBrand Framework Helps You Get More Clients.
2. Why Core Web Vitals Matter for Local SEO
Understanding and optimizing Core Web Vitals is important for local businesses that want to improve their local search engine optimization (SEO). These metrics affect mobile performance, local search visibility, customer engagement, and conversions, all key areas for any business competing locally.
Mobile Performance
A significant portion of local searches happen on mobile devices, often while people are on the go. Core Web Vitals, including Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), measure exactly the things mobile users care about. A website that performs well on these metrics gives mobile users a seamless experience and reduces the chances of potential customers leaving for a competitor’s site.
Local Search Visibility
Core Web Vitals are part of Google’s page experience signals, which play a role in how pages rank. They won’t outrank great, relevant content on their own, but when you’re competing with similar local businesses, a faster, smoother website can help give you the edge. More visibility means more traffic and more opportunities to capture local customers’ attention.
Customer Engagement
A smooth browsing experience encourages engagement. When a website loads quickly and responds efficiently, visitors are more likely to explore further, engage with your content, and come back in the future. For local businesses, that engagement builds trust and a loyal customer base.
Conversions
Ultimately, Core Web Vitals influence conversion rates. Local customers often search with urgency, so they’re more likely to act on a site that’s fast and easy to use. Whether they’re booking an appointment, making a purchase, or submitting a contact form, a well-optimized site makes it easier for them to say yes.
3. The Three Core Web Vitals
Google uses three Core Web Vitals to evaluate how users experience the performance and responsiveness of a page. Let’s look at each one, along with an analogy to make it more relatable.
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Definition: LCP measures loading performance. To provide a good user experience, the largest visible element on the page (such as an image or block of text) should load within 2.5 seconds.
Analogy: Imagine flipping open a book to glance at a picture or main heading first. If it appears immediately, you’re more likely to keep reading. Similarly, if a website’s main content shows up quickly, visitors are more inclined to stay.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP)
Definition: INP measures responsiveness, or how quickly a page reacts when someone clicks, taps, or types. In March 2024, INP officially replaced First Input Delay (FID) as a Core Web Vital. A good INP is 200 milliseconds or less.
Analogy: Think of INP like flipping a light switch. If the lights take a long time to turn on, the delay is noticeable and frustrating. Your website should respond like a good light switch, almost instantly.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Definition: CLS measures visual stability. It tracks whether elements shift unexpectedly as the page loads. A good CLS score is 0.1 or less.
Analogy: Consider the annoyance of trying to tap a button on your phone, only for it to jump out of the way just as you’re about to tap it. That’s poor visual stability, and it’s frustrating for users.
By understanding and optimizing these metrics, businesses can significantly improve their website’s user experience and be better positioned in search results.
4. How to Measure Core Web Vitals
Measuring your page speed regularly is how you catch problems before they cost you customers. Fortunately, there are several free tools available:
- Google PageSpeed Insights: Shows your Core Web Vitals (LCP, INP, and CLS) using real-world data when it’s available, plus a performance score and specific recommendations for mobile and desktop.
- Lighthouse: Built into Chrome’s DevTools, Lighthouse gives you detailed reports on performance, accessibility, and SEO, with specific areas to improve.
- Google Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report: Gives you an overview of how all the pages on your site are performing and flags the ones that need attention.
- Chrome UX Report: Collects real-world user experience data from millions of websites.
- Pingdom, GTmetrix, and WebPageTest: Pingdom gives you a speed test result and an overall performance grade. GTmetrix measures performance and shows what’s slowing your page down. WebPageTest gives detailed information about the loading process, including waterfall charts showing how long each element took to load.
Understanding Your Performance Score
PageSpeed Insights and Lighthouse give your page a performance score from 0 to 100. A score of 90 to 100 is good, 50 to 89 needs improvement, and 0 to 49 is poor. Check both your mobile and desktop scores. Mobile scores are usually lower, since phones and mobile connections tend to be slower.
You may still see older metrics, like Time to Interactive (TTI) or First Input Delay (FID), in some tools or articles. Google has since replaced them, so focus on LCP, INP, and CLS.
5. Common Causes of Bad Page Speed (and How to Fix Them)
LCP Issues: Largest Contentful Paint problems often come from large images, slow server responses, and render-blocking scripts that delay the main content of your page. To fix them, resize and compress your images and serve them in modern formats like WebP. Use lazy loading for images and videos further down the page so your most important content loads first. A faster web host can also make a big difference. Finally, minimize your CSS and JavaScript and load scripts asynchronously so they don’t block the page from displaying.
INP Issues: Interaction to Next Paint problems usually come from heavy JavaScript that keeps the page busy when someone tries to click or tap. To improve INP, cut back on third-party scripts, defer any JavaScript that isn’t needed right away, and simplify interactive features and the code that handles user input.
CLS Issues: Cumulative Layout Shift happens when content moves around unexpectedly, often because images or videos load without set dimensions. Give your images and videos explicit width and height attributes so space is reserved before they load. Avoid ads or pop-ups that push content around, and use CSS to reserve space for content that loads later.
Static Images: Images add visual interest and help tell your story, but unoptimized images are one of the biggest causes of a bad page speed. Compress images to reduce their file size, serve them with proper caching, and choose the right format for each image.
Responsive Images: Responsive images automatically adjust their size to fit the visitor’s screen. Smaller screens get smaller files, which means less data to download and faster load times. We highly recommend them to fix a bad page speed.
6. Mobile Performance and User Experience
Core Web Vitals are critical for mobile performance, especially since mobile users dominate local search. Mobile visitors want speed and efficiency, so your website needs a responsive design that adapts easily to any screen size without excessive scrolling or zooming. Compressing images is especially important on mobile, since it reduces data usage and speeds up load times.
Phones have different capabilities than desktop computers, which can affect how fast your site loads. That’s why it’s important to check your mobile score in Google’s PageSpeed Insights, not just your desktop score. Optimized code, asynchronous scripts, and browser caching all help your pages load fast on mobile. Improving LCP, INP, and CLS on mobile can keep more visitors on your site and increase conversions.
Bottom line… nobody is staying on a slow-loading page. Nobody.
7. Hosting and Technical Considerations for Local Businesses
For local businesses, a reliable, fast hosting provider is crucial for strong website performance. A reputable host means quick server responses and minimal downtime, which directly supports Core Web Vitals like LCP.
A Content Delivery Network (CDN) can also improve page speed by storing copies of your site’s content on servers closer to each visitor, which reduces load times.
Platforms such as Squarespace, Wix, or WordPress (combined with performance plugins) offer built-in optimization features that make it easier to keep your site fast, even without technical expertise.
8. Core Web Vitals and Google’s Ranking Algorithm
Core Web Vitals are part of Google’s “page experience” signals, which means they play a role in how pages rank. They’re not the only ranking factor, and they won’t make up for content that doesn’t answer a searcher’s question. But in tight local markets where competitors offer similar services, a better user experience can help set you apart.
Google values sites that put visitors first. Optimizing your Core Web Vitals shows a commitment to user-friendly design, which appeals to both search engines and potential customers and leads to better engagement and more conversions.
9. The ROI of Improving Core Web Vitals
Improving Core Web Vitals keeps visitors engaged longer and makes it easier for them to convert, and the results can show up directly in your revenue.
For example, Vodafone tested two versions of the same landing page that differed only in their Web Vitals optimization. A 31% improvement in LCP led to an 8% increase in sales (web.dev). You don’t need to be a giant brand to see the benefit. Faster, smoother pages create better experiences that turn into customer loyalty and positive feedback.
By investing in these improvements, businesses create user-friendly websites that keep customers coming back, resulting in steady growth and more revenue over time.
10. Quick Wins for Non-Tech-Savvy Business Owners
You don’t have to be a developer to improve your Core Web Vitals. Here are a few practical steps:
- Compress your images with free tools like TinyPNG to reduce file sizes without losing quality.
- Switch to a lightweight theme if you use WordPress, which can significantly reduce loading times.
- Remove inactive plugins and scripts that might be slowing down your site.
- Run regular audits with PageSpeed Insights or Search Console to catch problems early and keep your site meeting Google’s targets.
By measuring and improving your page speed regularly, you can fix a bad page speed before it costs you customers, improve the user experience, and give your business a competitive edge in local search.
Of course, RebelFish Local is here to help you audit your brick-and-mortar website’s performance. Curious to know what we do during a free audit call? Schedule a call today, and we’ll get you the information you need to improve a bad page speed.
Robert & Liz, RebelFish Local CoFounders, doing local volunteer work.
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