Short answer: Core Web Vitals are three Google metrics for the real-world experience of a page: Largest Contentful Paint for loading, Interaction to Next Paint for responsiveness and Cumulative Layout Shift for visual stability. A page passes when 75% of visits reach all three targets.
The three metrics and their targets
| Metric | What it measures | Good result |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | Loading: when the main content shows | 2.5 seconds or less |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | Responsiveness to the visitor’s actions | 200 milliseconds or less |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | Visual stability: how much the page jumps | 0.1 or less |
Search Console marks a metric Poor above 4 seconds, 500 milliseconds or 0.25, and Need improvement between the good target and those limits.
From Google Search Central, “Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results”, and Search Console Help, “Core Web Vitals report”, read November 2, 2026.
Field data and lab data
The Chrome User Experience Report collects anonymized measurements from real users, and PageSpeed Insights and the Search Console report both use it.
Google measures each metric at the 75th percentile of page loads, with mobile and desktop counted apart. Lab tools such as Lighthouse can test LCP and CLS, and their Total Blocking Time stands in for INP.
Google says lab measurement is no substitute for field measurement. A good lab score shows the page can load well; only field data shows how it loads for your visitors.
From web.dev, “Web Vitals”.
How the Search Console report works
The report groups similar pages and gives each group the status of its worst metric: Poor, Need improvement or Good. A group needs a minimum amount of data for both LCP and CLS to appear at all.
When single groups lack data, Search Console can show one group for your whole domain instead. If even that lacks data, the report says No data available.
Google’s advice is to fix every Poor group first, then the issues that affect the most URLs or your most important ones.
How to check and improve yours
- Open the Core Web Vitals report in Search Console and start with mobile.
- If it shows No data available, test your main pages in PageSpeed Insights instead.
- Fix the groups marked Poor first, then the issues that affect the most URLs.
- Open an example URL from each group and run PageSpeed Insights for its suggestions.
- After each change, compare LCP, CLS and Total Blocking Time in a new lab test.
- When the issue is fixed on every URL, click Start Tracking on its details page.
- Wait out the 28-day monitoring session before you call it fixed.
Our SEO checklist covers the other checks Google makes on every page.
What our own home page shows
At 11:02 PM on November 2, PageSpeed Insights had no field data for our home page or for our domain as a whole. Chrome hasn’t collected enough real visits from us yet.
In the same lab test on mobile, the home page scored 91, with LCP at 2.0 seconds, CLS at 0 and Total Blocking Time at 170 milliseconds. On desktop it scored 96. They help us catch problems, but they aren’t field data.
Before you call the work done
- You checked mobile and desktop separately.
- LCP is 2.5 seconds or less.
- INP is 200 milliseconds or less.
- CLS is 0.1 or less.
- Poor groups were fixed before the rest.
- Each fix has a 28-day validation running.
RememberCore Web Vitals come from real visits, at the 75th percentile, on mobile and desktop apart. Use lab tests to find problems and the Search Console report to confirm the fix.
If you want us to find what slows your pages down, see our technical SEO service.
Quick answers about Core Web Vitals
Do Core Web Vitals affect Google rankings?
Google highly recommends good Core Web Vitals for success with Search and a good user experience. It says they, along with other page experience aspects, align with what its core ranking systems seek to reward.
Is a PageSpeed Insights score the same as passing Core Web Vitals?
No. The score comes from a lab test. A page passes Core Web Vitals when real visits meet all three targets at the 75th percentile, and Google says lab measurement is no substitute for field measurement.
Why does the Core Web Vitals report say No data available?
Either your property is new in Search Console, or the Chrome User Experience Report doesn’t have enough data for that device type. A site with few visits can stay in that state for a long time.
What replaced First Input Delay?
Interaction to Next Paint. Google first developed INP as an experimental metric to cover responsiveness more completely than FID, and INP replaced FID as a stable Core Web Vital in 2024.
How long does Search Console take to confirm a fix?
When you click Start Tracking, it begins a 28-day monitoring session. If the issue doesn’t appear on any URL of your site during those 28 days, Search Console considers it fixed.
Sources
Read on November 2, 2026. Google Search Central: Understanding Core Web Vitals and Google search results. web.dev: Web Vitals. Search Console Help: Core Web Vitals report. Our own case: PageSpeed Insights for our home page, on November 2, 2026.