What's A Core Web Vital? Your Simple Guide to Page Speed and Google Search Console ⚡️
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Are you confused by terms like LCP and CLS? This beginner's guide breaks down Google's Core Web Vitals and shows you how to use the Google Search Console report to make your blog faster and better for your readers.
Introduction: Why a Faster Blog Matters
Ever click on a website that takes forever to load, with images jumping all over the place? You probably got frustrated and clicked away. We all have. Google noticed this too, and that's why they introduced Core Web Vitals.
Core Web Vitals are a set of three specific measurements that Google uses to score your blog's user experience. A good score can help your site rank higher in search results. The best part is, you don't need to be a coding expert to understand them! Google gives you all the information you need in a free tool called Google Search Console (GSC).
In this post, we'll demystify these important metrics and show you how to use your GSC report to find and fix common issues.
The 3 Core Web Vitals Explained
Think of Core Web Vitals as a quick health check for your blog's speed and stability. Each metric measures a different part of the user experience.
1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) 🖼️
What it measures: LCP measures how quickly the largest piece of content on your page (like a big image or a block of text) loads and becomes visible to your reader.
Why it matters: This is the most important part of the page loading for the user. A slow LCP can make your blog feel sluggish and unprofessional.
A "Good" score is: 2.5 seconds or less.
2. Interaction to Next Paint (INP) 🖱️
What it measures: INP measures how quickly your page responds after a user interacts with it, like clicking a button or filling out a form.
Why it matters: A long delay after a click can be incredibly frustrating. A good INP score means your blog feels responsive and snappy.
A "Good" score is: 200 milliseconds or less.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) ↕️
What it measures: CLS measures visual stability. It checks if elements on your page "shift" or move around unexpectedly while the page is still loading.
Why it matters: Have you ever tried to click a button, and suddenly a new ad loads above it, causing you to click the wrong thing? That's a layout shift. A low CLS score means your page is visually stable.
A "Good" score is: 0.1 or less.
Using Your Google Search Console Report
Now for the practical part. GSC is where you can see how your blog is doing on these metrics.
Step 1: Open the Report
Log in to your GSC account. In the left-hand menu, under the "Experience" section, you'll see a report called "Core Web Vitals." Click on it.
Step 2: Check Your Mobile and Desktop Scores
You'll see two separate reports: one for mobile and one for desktop. Mobile is especially important, as Google ranks mobile sites first. You'll see a graph and a summary of your URLs broken down into three categories:
Good: These pages are performing well. Great job!
Needs Improvement: These pages have some issues but aren't terrible. They are good candidates for your first round of fixes.
Poor: These pages have significant issues that need your attention. Prioritize fixing these first.
Step 3: Find and Fix the Issues
Click on any of the "Needs Improvement" or "Poor" issues in the report. GSC will show you example URLs and tell you which Core Web Vital is causing the problem (LCP, INP, or CLS).
Practical Applications for Fixes:
For LCP issues: The problem is usually a large image or a video file. Try compressing your images before you upload them or use a faster hosting provider.
For INP issues: This is often caused by a lot of JavaScript loading on the page. Use a plugin that defers JavaScript loading, or remove unnecessary plugins that might be slowing things down.
For CLS issues: The most common cause is not specifying the dimensions (width and height) for your images, ads, or embedded videos. When you embed a video, for example, always make sure you define its size in the code.
After you make fixes, you can go back to the GSC report and click "Validate Fix" to ask Google to re-evaluate your pages.
Conclusion: Your Blog, Better Than Ever
By checking your Core Web Vitals report, you can work smarter, not harder. You can pinpoint the exact issues that are hurting your blog's performance and fix them, leading to a faster, more user-friendly blog. A better user experience means happier readers, and happier readers are more likely to return and share your content. 🚀
This video provides a great visual walkthrough of how to use the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console to fix issues on your website. Core Web Vitals Reports in Google Search Console.
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