Core Web Vitals are a set of user experience metrics that Google uses as a ranking signal. They measure three aspects of page performance: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures loading speed; Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), which measures visual stability; and Interaction to Next Paint (INP), which measures responsiveness to user input.
Google introduced Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor in 2021. They are measured using real-world data from Chrome users and reported in Google Search Console under the Core Web Vitals report. Pages are rated as Good, Needs Improvement, or Poor for each metric.
The practical impact on rankings is real but modest for most sites. Core Web Vitals are a tiebreaker, not a primary ranking factor. A slow page with strong content and authority will still outrank a fast page with weak content on competitive queries. Where they matter most is on sites where multiple competitors have similar content quality and authority. In that scenario, page experience signals can determine which site ranks above the other. For B2B SaaS sites, LCP is typically the most common failure point due to heavy above-the-fold images and unoptimized hero sections.
