What Core Web Vitals are and how they affect rankings
In short
Core Web Vitals are three numbers Google uses to measure how fast and smooth your site feels: how long the main content takes to load (LCP), how quickly the page responds to clicks (INP), and whether elements jump around while loading (CLS).
What they consist of
LCP - time for the largest element on screen to load. Good is under 2.5 seconds.
INP - the delay between a user action and the page responding. Good is under 200 ms.
CLS - how much the page shifts while loading. Good is under 0.1.
Why it affects rankings
Google uses Core Web Vitals directly when ranking pages. A slow site loses both in search and in sales: Google's own data shows that as load time grows from 1 to 3 seconds, the chance a visitor leaves rises by about a third. People do not wait - they close the tab.
Common mistakes
Heavy images with no compression or modern formats
Ads and banners that shift content as they load
Extra scripts that block the page from rendering
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