What Core Web Vitals mean for your SEO and how to improve them starts with understanding how Google measures user experience—and why those measurements directly affect your site’s core web vitals scores and search rankings in Australia. In today’s digital landscape, delivering a fast, stable web page with minimal input delay and visual stability issues is essential. With Google PageSpeed Insights and the Chrome User Experience Report highlighting core web vitals metrics like Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), optimising these metrics will help your web pages rank higher and keep users engaged.
Google’s Page Experience update places page experience front and centre. At its core, the update relies heavily on real user data to give a more accurate picture of how users experience your site’s performance. The Page Experience signals combine core web vitals with traditional SEO factors. Among these metrics, the largest contentful paint metric—often referred to simply as LCP—measures the loading performance of the largest element, such as an LCP image or a CSS background image. Ensuring your site’s LCP value stays low, your first input delay remains minimal, and your cumulative layout shift stays within limits helps you deliver a smooth, predictable page layout that boosts your search rankings.
Understanding Core Web Vitals
Grasping Core Web Vitals gives clear insight into how Google measures key aspects of your web page’s performance and user experience.
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Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Largest Contentful Paint measures how long it takes for the largest element—often an LCP element like a hero image or background image—to render on the screen. The LCP time begins when the browser starts loading the HTML document response and includes network requests for resources. A good LCP score occurs when the LCP resource finishes loading within 2.5 seconds of when the user initiates loading the page. Optimising LCP involves reducing load time for the largest element by serving responsive images, using a CDN on the same server region, and minimising render blocking resources.
First Input Delay (FID)
First Input Delay captures the time between a user’s first interaction—such as clicking a button or tapping a link—and when the browser can begin processing that interaction. Long tasks, heavy code execution, and multiple JavaScript files can increase input delay. A target FID under 100 milliseconds helps ensure users perceive the site as responsive and reliable.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Cumulative Layout Shift quantifies the sum of unexpected layout shifts that occur during the entire lifespan of a page load. Unexpected changes in page layout, like ads injected above content or dynamic elements inserted after initial page load, negatively affect visual stability. A low CLS score—ideally below 0.1—means users see a stable page layout without sudden shifts in content.
Why Core Web Vitals Matter for SEO
Core Web Vitals are now official ranking signals within Google’s search rankings. These metrics give website owners a more accurate picture of how users experience page load, visual stability, and responsiveness. Improving these metrics helps you:
Boost search rankings in Australian Google search results by meeting thresholds for LCP, FID, and CLS
Deliver faster initial page load and more predictable page layouts
Reduce bounce rates and keep users engaged, improving session duration and conversion rates
Benefit from Google Search Console insights and PageSpeed Insights recommendations
By focusing on core web vital improvements, you signal to Google that you value user experience as much as content quality—an important factor for competitive SEO.
Measuring Your Site’s Core Web Vitals
Begin by gathering baseline data using tools such as:
Google Search Console Core Web Vitals report showing a site-wide overview of LCP, FID, and CLS across desktop devices and mobile
Google PageSpeed Insights offering lab data on an HTML document load and real user data for LCP, FID, and CLS
Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) providing field data for a more accurate picture of real-world performance
Lighthouse in Chrome DevTools simulating initial page load and highlighting render blocking resources
Web Vitals extension in Chrome offering real-time metrics as you test image load, network request timing, and code execution
Review this data to identify LCP candidates, lcp request chains, long tasks causing delays, and any unexpected layout shifts.
Improving LCP: Optimising Largest Contentful Paint
Enhancing your site's Largest Contentful Paint is key to delivering a fast, engaging experience that supports strong search rankings and satisfies user expectations.
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Optimise LCP Resource Loading
LCP resource loading focuses on delivering visually important elements to users as quickly and smoothly as possible, which greatly improves their experience and your site’s performance.
Serve critical image resources and web fonts from a CDN with a PoP near your Australian users
Preload the main LCP resource—the key hero image or largest text block—using <link rel="preload" as="image"> or <link rel="preload" as="font">
Compress images with modern formats like WebP or AVIF and include srcset for responsive images
Manage CSS Background Images and Web Fonts
CSS background images and web fonts is essential for improving load speed and maintaining visual stability as your site renders for users.
Inline critical CSS required for above-the-fold content to avoid render blocking resources
Load non-critical CSS asynchronously or defer it
Preload web fonts with font-display: optional to reduce FOUT and FOIT, preventing delays in text rendering
Use Lazy Loading for Image Resources
Implement native lazy loading (loading="lazy") for offscreen images and iframes to prioritise network requests for LCP candidates. This reduces initial network contention and gives priority to critical resources.
Reducing First Input Delay
To lower input delay on your web page:
Analyse the main-thread work in DevTools and break up long tasks into smaller chunks
Use async or defer attributes for non-critical JavaScript files so they don’t block HTML parsing
Offload heavy computations to Web Workers, ensuring user interactions aren’t stalled by code execution
Audit third-party scripts and tags, loading them after the initial page load or managing them with performance budgets
Minimising Cumulative Layout Shift
To improve visual stability in your page layout:
Specify width and height attributes for images, videos, embeds, and ads so the browser can reserve space before the resource loads
Use CSS aspect-ratio boxes or placeholder elements to reserve space for dynamic content, such as sponsored posts or late-loading banners
Avoid inserting new content above existing content after the page has loaded, which can shift visible elements
Preload critical font files so text doesn’t reflow once a web font finishes loading
Australian Hosting and Network Considerations
Choosing the right infrastructure can make a big difference in core web vitals performance:
Local Hosting and CDN Choices
Selecting a hosting provider with data centres in Sydney or Canberra reduces latency and improves load times for users in the ACT and regional Australia. Pair this with a CDN that has edge nodes across the Asia-Pacific region to serve image resources and CSS files faster.
Mobile Network Speeds
Mobile users in Australia often experience varying network conditions. Test your site under 3G emulated conditions in Chrome DevTools to see how your initial page load and LCP values perform. Optimise for lower bandwidth scenarios by reducing overall network requests and code execution.
Ongoing Monitoring and Maintenance
Optimising core web vitals is an ongoing process. Maintain performance by:
Integrating Lighthouse CI in your CI/CD pipeline to catch regressions in LCP score, FID, and CLS early
Setting performance budgets for network requests, JavaScript payloads, and lazy loading thresholds
Regularly reviewing Google Search Console and CrUX data for a more accurate picture of real user data
Using automated alerting systems to notify your team when LCP time or input delay thresholds are exceeded
Conclusion
Core Web Vitals are essential to modern SEO and user experience. By focusing on Largest Contentful Paint, First Input Delay, and Cumulative Layout Shift, you optimise page load, responsiveness, and visual stability. These improvements lead to better search rankings, higher engagement, and an improved experience for users across Australia.
ACT Marketing provides expert technical SEO services to optimise your site’s core web vitals, improve page experience, and boost your search rankings in Australian Google results. Contact us today to start improving your page load, user interactions, and overall site performance.