Core Web Vitals are three measurements Google uses to score how your website feels to a real person: how fast the main thing loads, how much the page jumps around, and how quickly it reacts when someone taps. They have names, LCP, CLS, and INP, but they are just loading, stability, and responsiveness. Google says its ranking systems use them, so they affect both your visitors and your search position.
In plain English
Think of it like walking into a shop. Core Web Vitals ask three things: did the lights come on quickly, did the shelves stay put instead of sliding around while you reached for something, and did anyone react when you asked a question. A shop can be beautiful and still fail all three.
The three, in plain English
LCP is loading
Largest Contentful Paint measures how long until the biggest thing on screen, usually your hero image or headline, actually shows up.
CLS is stability
Cumulative Layout Shift measures how much the page jumps around while it loads, the thing that makes you tap the wrong button.
INP is responsiveness
Interaction to Next Paint measures how long the page takes to visibly react after someone clicks, taps, or types.
Worth remembering
Google's documented thresholds for a "good" score are an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less, an INP of 200 milliseconds or less, and a CLS of 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.
The 75th percentile part matters most for a small business: it means three out of four visits have to hit those numbers, not just your average visit on good wifi. Your phone on the shop's connection is not the test; a customer's phone on a weak signal is.
What to do about it
You can check your own numbers free in Google PageSpeed Insights, and if the results look like a foreign language, that is normal. Get a free website audit and I will tell you which of the three is actually costing you customers.
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