Speed matters. Not just to your visitors — but to Google itself. Since 2021, Google has used a set of measurements called Core Web Vitals as a direct ranking signal. How quickly and smoothly your website loads now directly influences where you appear in search results.
For many business owners, this is entirely invisible. Your website might look perfectly fine on your own computer, but if its performance metrics are poor, Google is penalising you in the rankings every single day. Your competitor — whose site is technically faster — may be ranked above you simply because of that, even if your content is better.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are three specific measurements Google uses to assess page experience:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) — How long does it take for the largest visible element (typically your hero image or main headline) to load? Google wants this within 2.5 seconds. A slow LCP makes a site feel sluggish and is heavily penalised.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP) — How quickly does your site respond when a user clicks a button, taps a menu, or submits a form? Google wants interactions to complete within 200 milliseconds. Slow responses feel broken and frustrating.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) — How much does your page layout unexpectedly jump around as it loads? You’ll know the experience: you go to tap a link and an image loads above it, sending you to the wrong place. High CLS is penalised by Google and infuriates users.
How to Check Your Own Scores
Google provides a free tool — PageSpeed Insights — where you can enter your URL and see your Core Web Vitals scores for both mobile and desktop. A score above 90 is excellent; 50–89 needs improvement; below 50 is poor. Many small business websites, particularly those on older themes, score 30–60 on mobile.
What Causes Poor Performance?
- Unoptimised images that are far too large in file size
- Too many third-party scripts (analytics, chat widgets, social media embeds)
- Cheap or slow web hosting
- Outdated WordPress themes with bloated code
- No caching or content delivery network (CDN) in place
- Excessive plugins adding unnecessary page weight
This is closely related to why mobile-first design is so important — a poorly performing site on mobile will fail Core Web Vitals almost every time.
We Build Performance In From the Start
At Nexgen Web Design, performance is never an afterthought. Every site we build is optimised for Core Web Vitals — clean code, proper image handling, quality hosting guidance, and ongoing support. Our plans include performance monitoring as standard.
Run your site through PageSpeed Insights now. If the results concern you, get in touch — we’ll help you understand exactly what needs to change and how we can fix it.