The metrics Google measures — and so do we

Core Web Vitals are Google's way of measuring user experience as a number. LCP measures how long until the largest visible element appears. INP measures how long the page takes to respond to user input. CLS measures how much the layout shifts unexpectedly as the page loads. Together they determine whether your site is ranked as fast, needs improvement, or poor.

Most agency-built sites fail at least one of these. CLS is the most common failure: images without fixed dimensions, fonts that swap mid-render, ads that push content down. These aren't hard to fix—they're just easy to ignore during development when you're on a fast machine and fast connection.

We measure from the start. Every project gets Lighthouse runs in CI, real-user monitoring through Vercel Analytics, and a performance budget. If a new component causes LCP to regress, the pull request fails. That creates accountability at the code level, not as a post-launch audit.

The business case is direct. Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. A poor score doesn't just mean a slow site—it means lower organic visibility. For clients investing in content and SEO, the technical foundation we build isn't a detail; it's part of the return on their investment.