Glossary
Core Web Vitals (CWV)
Google's page-experience metrics — LCP (loading), INP (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability) — that feed ranking and, indirectly, AI-source selection.
By Teeming Chew, Founder Last updated
Core Web Vitals are Google's user-experience measurements. As of 2024, INP (Interaction to Next Paint) replaced FID, joining LCP and CLS. They're a ranking input and a proxy for the kind of fast, stable page that crawlers index efficiently and users trust.
What are the three Core Web Vitals?
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) — how fast the main content loads, target under 2.5s. INP (Interaction to Next Paint) — responsiveness to input, target under 200ms. CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) — visual stability, target under 0.1.
Do Core Web Vitals affect AI search?
Indirectly. AI engines lean on the same crawl-and-rank infrastructure that weighs page experience, and a fast page spends less crawl budget and is more likely to be fully rendered and retrieved. CWV won't win a citation alone, but poor vitals can hold a page back.
How do you improve Core Web Vitals?
Serve content server-side, optimize and dimension images to avoid layout shift, defer non-critical JavaScript, and cache aggressively. Measure with real-user field data, not just lab tests.
Part of the Cite Hustle GEO glossary — definitions for generative engine optimization and AI search. See how it fits the bigger picture in the GEO methodology.