Core Web Vitals: Why They Matter
Core Web Vitals (CWV) are no longer “technical extras” — they are fundamental ranking and performance signals that directly impact your website’s visibility, usability and conversion rate. If your website loads slowly, shifts unexpectedly, or feels unresponsive, both Google and your users will penalise you. Here’s why CWV matters — and how Forwardify helps businesses achieve excellent performance scores.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are Google’s key user experience metrics that measure real-world performance. They assess how fast your site loads, how stable it is visually, and how quickly users can interact with it. These metrics directly influence SEO rankings and overall user satisfaction.
| Metric | What It Measures | Good Score |
|---|---|---|
| Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) | Loading speed of main content | Under 2.5 seconds |
| Interaction to Next Paint (INP) | Responsiveness to user input | Under 200ms |
| Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) | Visual stability (layout movement) | Under 0.1 |
If your website fails these thresholds, it may rank lower in search results and frustrate users.
Why Core Web Vitals Are So Important
Core Web Vitals impact three major areas: SEO rankings, AI search visibility, and conversion performance.
1. CWV Directly Affect Google Rankings
Google has confirmed that page experience signals, including Core Web Vitals, are ranking factors. Poor speed or unstable layouts reduce competitiveness in search results — even if your content is strong.
2. CWV Impact AI Search & LLM Visibility
AI tools increasingly favour fast, technically sound websites. A poorly performing site may not be indexed efficiently or may deliver weak user signals, reducing its authority in AI-driven discovery.
3. CWV Affect Conversions
Speed and stability directly influence sales and enquiries. Industry research consistently shows that slower websites lose users rapidly.
| Performance Delay | Impact on User Behaviour |
|---|---|
| +1 second load time | Conversion rates can drop by up to 20% |
| Over 3 seconds load time | Over 50% of users may abandon the page |
| Poor layout stability | Higher bounce rates and lower trust |
How Forwardify Helps Clients Achieve Excellent CWV Scores
At Forwardify, we combine advanced web development, performance engineering, and strategic technical SEO services to optimise websites for Core Web Vitals from the ground up.
- Optimised code structure using modern frameworks
- Image compression and next-gen formats (WebP/AVIF)
- Lazy loading and script deferral
- Critical CSS and performance-first architecture
- Server optimisation and high-performance hosting
- UX-focused responsive web design to reduce layout shifts
For businesses undergoing a website redesign, we build CWV optimisation directly into the rebuild — ensuring your site is fast, stable and future-proof from launch.
Common Core Web Vitals Problems We Fix
- Slow hero images causing poor LCP
- Excessive JavaScript blocking interaction (poor INP)
- Layout jumps caused by un-sized images or fonts (CLS issues)
- Third-party scripts impacting load performance
- Unoptimised CMS themes
We regularly perform full on-page SEO audits and performance audits to identify and fix these issues.
FAQs: Core Web Vitals
Yes. Core Web Vitals are part of Google’s page experience ranking signals. Sites with poor performance may rank lower than faster competitors with similar content quality.
Absolutely. A strategic website redesign allows performance optimisation at code level, improving loading speed, stability and responsiveness from the ground up.
You can use Google PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse or Search Console to review your CWV scores. Forwardify also provides detailed performance audits and optimisation plans.
Want a Fast, High-Performing Website That Passes Core Web Vitals?
Forwardify builds and optimises websites for speed, stability and search performance. If your site struggles with slow loading or poor CWV scores, we can audit, optimise or redesign it for maximum impact.
Thomas Carpenter
FounderWorking closely with clients to create visually compelling, strategic solutions built for long-term growth is what we do.
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