Google’s Core Web Vitals: What They Are & How to Improve Your Score in 2025

If you want your website to rank higher on Google, Core Web Vitals need to be on your radar. These are Google’s key performance metrics that determine how fast, responsive, and stable your website feels to users.

A poor Core Web Vitals score can hurt your SEO rankings, drive visitors away, and lower conversions—but the good news? You can fix it!

Let’s break down what Core Web Vitals are and how to improve your score in 2025.

1. What Are Google’s Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals measure three key aspects of user experience:

📉 Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – How fast does your page load?
✔ Goal: LCP should be under 2.5 seconds.

📉 First Input Delay (FID) → Now replaced by Interaction to Next Paint (INP) – How responsive is your website?
✔ Goal: INP should be below 200ms.

📉 Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Does your content jump around while loading?
✔ Goal: CLS should be less than 0.1.

🔹 Why It Matters: A slow, unresponsive site can lead to lower rankings and lost customers.

2. How to Improve Your Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) Score

📉 The Problem: Your page loads too slowly, causing visitors to leave before it fully appears.

✅ The Fix:

• Optimize and compress large images (WebP format is ideal).
• Use fast, high-performance hosting (Yūgen Digital can help!).
• Enable lazy loading so images only load when needed.
• Minimize unnecessary third-party scripts that slow down loading.

3. How to Improve Your Interaction to Next Paint (INP) Score

📉 The Problem: Users click or tap something, but your website takes too long to respond.

✅ The Fix:

• Reduce JavaScript execution time (eliminate unused code).
• Optimize third-party scripts (like chatbots, analytics, and ads).
• Implement browser caching to speed up interactions.

🔹 Pro Tip: Run your site through Google PageSpeed Insights to see which scripts are slowing you down.

4. How to Improve Your Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) Score

📉 The Problem: Your website’s elements jump around while loading, making it frustrating to use.

✅ The Fix:

• Set defined width & height attributes for all images and videos.
• Use CSS animations instead of inserting dynamic elements.
• Avoid inserting ads or pop-ups that push content down unexpectedly.

🔹 Why It Matters: Poor CLS makes your site feel broken—and Google hates bad UX.

5. Tools to Measure & Improve Core Web Vitals

📉 Not sure how your site performs? Use these free tools:

• Google PageSpeed Insights – Gives detailed Core Web Vitals scores.
• Lighthouse (Chrome DevTools) – Advanced performance testing.
• WebPageTest.org – In-depth speed and performance analysis.

🔹 Pro Tip: Test your website on mobile and desktop—Google prioritizes mobile performance.

Why Core Web Vitals Matter for SEO in 2025

Google rewards websites that provide a fast, seamless experience. If your Core Web Vitals are poor, you could lose rankings to competitors with faster, more user-friendly sites.

At Yūgen Digital, we audit, optimize, and speed up websites to ensure they meet Google’s performance standards—so you rank higher and convert more visitors.

🚀 Let’s optimize your website for better rankings today!

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