The Core Web Vitals That Actually Move Your Conversion Rate

Google's Core Web Vitals get treated as a monolithic SEO checkbox, but in practice, the metrics that move rankings and the metrics that move conversion rate aren't always the same thing.

LCP: the metric with the clearest business case

Largest Contentful Paint has the most direct, well-documented relationship to bounce rate. Every 100ms improvement compounds — we've seen conversion lifts of 5-10% from LCP work alone on client projects.

INP is the one teams underinvest in

Interaction to Next Paint replaced First Input Delay as a Core Web Vital, and it's the metric most teams neglect because it's harder to test in a lab environment. It matters most on interaction-heavy pages: dashboards, filters, checkout flows.

• Minimize client-side JavaScript on initial load
• Use server components by default, opt into client components deliberately
• Defer non-critical scripts and third-party embeds
• Preload critical fonts and hero images