The Experience Score is a single number that sums up how well your webpage performs based on Google's Core Web Vitals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). It gives you a quick way to check your site's speed, responsiveness, and visual stability, all of which are crucial for a great user experience and better search engine rankings. We use "Experience Score", "CWV Score" and "Core Web Vitals Score" interchangeably since they all capture the overall feel of your site.
We came up with the Experience Score to make it easier to compare your site's performance with competitors' websites. Instead of wrestling with three separate numbers, you get one score that tells you where you stand, saving you time and effort when benchmarking against other sites in your industry.
What Does the Experience Score Measure?
The Experience Score ranges from 0 to 100 and shows how your page performs based on its real user performance. It is based on the Google's Core Web Vitals metrics collected from Google Chrome browser or any real-user monitoring tool. Here's what each one measures:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): How fast the main content loads, in seconds. A "Good" LCP is 2.5 seconds or less.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP): How quickly the page responds to user actions like clicks or taps, in milliseconds. A "Good" INP is 200 milliseconds or less.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): How stable the page's layout is, measuring annoying shifts during loading. A "Good" CLS is 0.1 or less.
The Experience Score estimates the percentage of real user page loads that hit these "Good" thresholds, similar to what you see in Google's PageSpeed Insights. It focuses on the weakest metric to give you a clear picture of where your site needs work.
What Does the Score Tell You?
The Experience Score gives you a quick read on your page’s performance:
75 or Above: Your weakest metric is at least meeting its "Good" threshold. A score of 75 means all metrics are at their thresholds (LCP 2.5 seconds or less, INP 200 milliseconds or less, CLS 0.1 or less), and higher scores (up to 100) mean even better performance.
Below 75: At least one metric isn’t hitting its "Good" mark, and lower scores mean worse performance. A score of 0 shows one or more metrics are really struggling.
The Experience Score is based on the 75th percentile values of LCP, INP, and CLS, which are the most important web vitals for performance and ranking.
Why Use the Experience Score?
The Experience Score makes life easier by:
Simplifying Comparisons: One number lets you quickly see how your site stacks up against competitors’ sites, helping you spot where you’re ahead or falling behind.
Focusing on What Matters: It highlights your weakest metric, so you know exactly what to fix, whether it’s slow loading, sluggish interactions, or layout shifts.
Boosting SEO: Since Core Web Vitals affect Google’s search rankings, a higher Experience Score can help your site climb higher in search results.
Saving Time: No need to analyze three metrics separately; one score sums it up.
Example in Action
Imagine testing your site and a competitor’s site. Your site has LCP at 7 seconds (score 30, "Poor" by Google’s standard), INP at 545 milliseconds (score around 31.9, "Poor"), and CLS at 0.08 (score 80, "Good"), giving an Experience Score of 30, with LCP as the weak spot. The competitor’s site has LCP at 2.2 seconds (score around 78, "Good"), INP at 211 milliseconds (score around 73.6, "Needs Improvement"), and CLS at 0.04 (score 90, "Good"), for a score of 73.6. Their site offers a better experience per Google’s standards, and you need to improve LCP and INP to catch up.
Comparing these scores, you can see your site lags behind and needs LCP improvements to catch up.