There are 3 current goals when improving Core Web Vitals, and in the attempt to reach each goal, you may have a different set of targets.
Two of them are related to SEO, as Google says:
Page Experience is equal to Core Web Vitals plus other small technicalities.
The other goal is that when improving the Core Web Vitals, you improve your site “user experience” therefore upgrading your chances of converting, having large page sessions, and other monetization-related metrics improvements.
Good Core Web Vitals improves overall site SERP(SEO)
Google says they evaluate the site’s Core Web Vitals on a site-wide basis, which means you should seek to improve all the pages to green(passed) metrics not just the homepage(as many do), to get a boost in SERP(SEO) in all the site. Google aggregates all pages as “Origin”.
“However, we do have some site-wide assessments.”
This goal is binary(either attempt to improve to get green/pass or don’t) since Google only recognizes “Good” Core Web Vitals in the algorithm.
Improving Core Web Vitals to improve overall site SERP(SEO) entails improving just for Chrome browser(minus IOS) users.
Good Core Web Vitals improves a particular page SERP(SEO)
Google also says they evaluate the site’s Core Web Vitals on a page-specific basis, which means you should improve pages that you consider important in SEO to green(passed) metrics to get a boost on SERP(SEO) in that particular page:
“Our core ranking systems generally evaluate content on a page-specific basis.”
This goal is also binary(either attempt to improve to get green/pass or don’t) since Google only recognizes “Good” Core Web Vitals in the algorithm.
Improving Core Web Vitals to improve a particular page SERP(SEO) entails improving just for Chrome browser(minus IOS) users.
Good Core Web Vitals improves a single page or all site conversions/monetization and related metrics
Regarding improving Core Web Vitals for conversion rates and other metrics, Google and other important companies improved their Core Web Vitals, but not to specifically reach green metrics(passed) metrics;
- “How CLS optimizations increased Yahoo! JAPAN News’s page views per session by 15%“
- “Vodafone: A 31% improvement in LCP increased sales by 8%“
- “How Trendyol reduced INP by 50%, resulting in a 1% uplift on click-through rate“
- “Meta said that one of the motivations to switch to their new CSS style system, StyleX, was because their old system(lazyloading CSS) had bad INP(Interaction to Next Paint).“
- “The Chrome browser team says that the Core Web Vitals and other initiatives saved 10.000 years of loading time.“
You can improve metrics related to monetization such as conversion rates, cart abandonment, bounce rate, click-through, and others because you’re improving the site’s UX by improving its Core Web Vitals.
This goal isn’t binary, as improving any metric in any % may get the goal reached. You don’t need to attempt to reach green to upgrade the metrics.
Please note that this goal entails optimizing for all browsers, not just Chrome as in the previous 2 goals.
Why improve Core Web Vitals instead of Pagespeed?
Improving Pagespeed doesn’t guarantee passing Core Web Vitals, as 43% of sites with a +90 score don’t reach green metrics.
Pagespeed also doesn’t fully cover 2 of the 3 Core Web Vitals metrics. INP and full page load CLS aren’t available on the navigation mode used in Pagespeed.
Pagespeed(Lighthouse Navigation mode) is indicated to be used as a tool to automate website performance regression and other tasks that fit your performance workflow. It ignores caching, supports no user interactions, and no cookies accepted. In short, it assumes your most pessimistic scenario.
Get your Core Web Vitals optimized, your pages faster plus an SEO boost!