Web vitals: your website's health check, in plain language
When you run a speed test on a website (like Google's PageSpeed, which our free audit uses), you get back a set of acronyms. They look intimidating. They measure things you already understand as a visitor — you just never had names for them.
LCP — 'when does the main thing appear?'
Largest Contentful Paint is the moment the biggest element on the screen — usually your headline or main photo — actually shows up. Under 2.5 seconds feels normal. Over 4 seconds, and visitors start leaving before they've seen anything.
CLS — 'does the page jump around?'
Cumulative Layout Shift measures how much the page moves while loading. You know the feeling: you go to tap a button and an ad shoves it down and you tap the wrong thing. That's layout shift. Good sites reserve space for everything so nothing jumps.
TBT — 'does it respond when I tap?'
Total Blocking Time measures the moments the page is technically visible but frozen — too busy running code to react to your tap. It's the digital equivalent of a shop assistant who sees you but keeps stacking shelves.
Visitors never say 'the LCP was slow'. They say 'it felt broken' — and leave.
The good news: all three are fixable with well-built pages — properly sized images, fonts that load politely, and code that ships only where needed. Run our free audit and you'll see your three numbers with a plain-language reading of each.