Website Speed Matters: How Core Web Vitals Impact Your SEO and User Experience

In today’s digital-first world, website speed isn’t just a technical detail—it’s a ranking factor that can make or break your online visibility. With Google’s increasing focus on user experience signals, your Core Web Vitals directly influence not only your SEO performance, but also how long visitors stay, engage, and convert on your site.

In this article, we’ll explore how Core Web Vitals affect your search engine rankings, what they mean for your user journey, and what you can do to optimise your website—especially if you’re using WordPress.

What Are Core Web Vitals?

Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics defined by Google that evaluate the real-world user experience of a webpage. These metrics focus on three key areas:

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) – Measures loading performance. Ideal time: under 2.5 seconds.
  
• First Input Delay (FID) – Measures interactivity. Ideal delay: less than 100 milliseconds.
  
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) – Measures visual stability. Target: less than 0.1.
  

As of March 2024, Google replaced FID with a more comprehensive metric called Interaction to Next Paint (INP)—a better measure of how responsive your site feels during user interaction.

Why Website Speed and Core Web Vitals Matter for SEO

Since the Page Experience Update, Core Web Vitals are part of Google’s ranking algorithm. This means that your page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and interactivity influence how well your site appears in search engine results pages (SERPs).

How Poor Scores Hurt Your Rankings:

• Slow-loading pages increase bounce rates.
  
• Unstable layouts frustrate users and lead to abandonment.
  
• Laggy interactivity damages credibility and trust.
  

Even if you have great content, slow performance could push your site below faster competitors.

The Link Between User Experience and Website Speed

A fast website creates a frictionless user journey, which is vital for:

• Increasing conversion rates
  
• Reducing bounce rates
  
• Boosting engagement
  
• Improving customer retention
  

According to Google research, a 1-second delay in mobile load time can impact conversion rates by up to 20%.

WordPress Performance Optimisation Tips

Running your site on WordPress? Great—but you’ll need to actively maintain and optimise it. Here’s how:

1. Use a Lightweight Theme

Choose performance-optimised themes like Astra or GeneratePress. Avoid bloated templates.

2. Optimise Images & Media

Use tools like Imagify or ShortPixel for automatic image compression. Convert to WebP format for faster delivery.

3. Use a CDN and Fast Hosting

Pair your WordPress site with a high-speed cloud hosting provider and a Content Delivery Network (CDN) like Cloudflare.

4. Regular Website Maintenance

Update your plugins, themes, and core files regularly. Broken elements and outdated code often drag down speed and performance.

How to Monitor Core Web Vitals

Use these tools to track your website performance:

• Google PageSpeed Insights – Offers real-user Core Web Vitals data.
  
• Lighthouse – Gives a technical breakdown of what’s slowing you down.
  
• Google Search Console – Shows Core Web Vitals reports for all your indexed pages.
  
• GTmetrix – Provides waterfall charts and performance scores.
  

Final Thoughts: Speed Is the New SEO

Investing in website performance monitoring and Core Web Vitals optimisation is no longer optional—it’s essential. Whether you’re running an eCommerce site, a portfolio, or a WordPress blog, a fast and stable website is key to delivering an outstanding user experience and staying competitive in search rankings.

If you need help optimising your site or setting up a performance-driven website maintenance plan, our London team is here to help.