In 2021 Google made Core Web Vitals a ranking factor. Your site's performance on three metrics directly affects your Google search position.
The Three Core Web Vitals
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): How fast does your page load? Under 2.5 seconds is "Good." The most common culprit is an unoptimized hero image. Compress images and ensure fast server response.
INP (Interaction to Next Paint): How quickly does your page respond to clicks and taps? Under 200ms is "Good." Usually caused by too much JavaScript loading simultaneously — analytics, chat widgets, and tracking pixels competing for browser resources.
CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): Does your page jump around as it loads? Under 0.1 is "Good." Caused by images without defined dimensions, ads loading after content, and fonts loading late.
How to Check Your Scores
Google Search Console → Core Web Vitals report. Also run your URL through PageSpeed Insights (pagespeed.web.dev) for specific, actionable recommendations per page.
Practical Fixes for WordPress
Compress and size images correctly (fixes LCP), defer non-critical JavaScript (fixes INP), add explicit dimensions to all images (fixes CLS). WP Rocket handles many of these automatically. For persistent issues, our speed optimization service targets each metric specifically.
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