What is Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are Google's user-experience signals: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Interaction to Next Paint (INP) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). They directly affect search rankings and conversion rates.
Why a studio cares
A pretty site that's slow doesn't ship. We build performance into design choices from day one: image budgets in the brief, font subsetting at handover, third-party audits before launch.
What changed in 2026
Image budgets are tighter, third-party scripts (chat widgets, analytics, ad tags) hit INP harder, and Google now measures real-user data more aggressively.
Our checklist on every BadeStudio build
- WebP / AVIF images with proper aspect-ratio attributes
- Self-hosted, subset Google fonts (no FOUT)
- One CSS file, one JS file, route-level code splitting
- Critical CSS inlined for the hero
- Lazy-load below-fold images and iframes
- Audit third parties: every chat widget costs ~20 Lighthouse points
Related: See why we choose custom over WordPress for performance, or mobile-friendly websites from £500.
