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Core Web Vitals for SaaS Founders: Why They Matter and How to Fix Them
Imagine this:
You’ve spent weeks designing your SaaS landing page. You’re running paid ads. Traffic is coming in. But…
- People bounce before they even see your product 🙁.
- Users get frustrated using your dashboard 😵💫.
- Your CAC climbs, but conversions don’t 💸.
This silent killer isn’t your copy, your features, or your pricing. It’s performance.
More specifically: Core Web Vitals.
Whether you’re a SaaS founder, solo builder, or a non-technical startup CEO, understanding Core Web Vitals is one of the simplest, most impactful things you can do to protect your growth, revenue, and reputation.
Let’s break it down.
What Are Core Web Vitals?
Core Web Vitals are a set of user experience metrics created by Google to measure how your website or web app performs from a real human’s perspective.
They answer questions like:
- Does your page load quickly?
- Can users interact without lag?
- Does anything shift around unexpectedly?
Google uses these metrics to rank your pages in search — and users use them (even subconsciously) to decide whether they trust your product.
The Three Core Web Vitals You Need to Know
1. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
What it means: How quickly the largest visible content (like your hero image, headline, or signup button) loads.
Why it matters: If it takes 5 seconds before your product headline appears, users will leave before they even read it.
Goal: Less than 2.5 seconds.
2. First Input Delay (FID) (being replaced by Interaction to Next Paint – INP)
What it means: How fast your site reacts when someone first tries to click, type, or scroll.
Why it matters: Users expect instant response. If they click and nothing happens, it feels broken.
Goal: Less than 100ms.
3. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
What it means: Measures how much the layout shifts as your page loads.
Why it matters: Ever try to tap a button but the layout jumps and you hit the wrong thing? That’s a bad user experience.
Goal: CLS score under 0.1.
Why Core Web Vitals Matter for Your SaaS Business
Let’s move beyond tech-speak. Here’s what poor performance actually costs you as a founder:
1. You Lose Users Before They Ever Try the Product
Google found that a delay of just 1 second in page load can reduce conversions by up to 20%.
That means if 100 people hit your landing page each day, 20 might leave before they even see your headline — all because your page didn’t load fast enough.
2. You Burn Ad Spend & Lower Your ROI
Running Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn ads? You’re paying for every click.
But if your page takes forever to load or shifts around when users try to interact — you’re lighting money on fire. You might have a great product, but it’s being judged before anyone gets to use it.
3. You Get Penalized in Google Search
Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking factor in search.
So if your competitors have faster, more stable sites — their content ranks higher. Even if your product is better.
4. Bad UX Increases Churn
A slow, janky dashboard creates friction. Even if people don’t complain, they might:
- Use your product less
- Avoid recommending it
- Cancel sooner than they would have
Performance affects perceived quality, which affects trust, which affects retention.
How to Check Your Core Web Vitals (No Code Required)
You don’t need to be technical to see how your site performs. Use these tools:
Google PageSpeed Insights
Just paste your site’s URL. You’ll get:
- A color-coded report (red/yellow/green)
- Separate scores for mobile and desktop
- Recommendations for improvement
Google Search Console
If your site is verified, the “Core Web Vitals” section shows real-world performance data based on your users.
Ask your developer or marketer to help you set this up if it’s not active yet.
What Causes Poor Core Web Vitals? (Common SaaS Problems)
Here are a few of the usual suspects I’ve seen hurting performance in SaaS sites:
Oversized images and videos
That 5MB hero image? It’s killing your LCP. Use compression tools like TinyPNG or WebP formats.
Third-party scripts
Tracking tools, chat widgets, and ad pixels slow things down. Remove what’s not essential or load them after the main content.
No loading priority or placeholders
If your fonts or images load late, everything shifts around (bad CLS). Fix with proper size definitions and preload tags.
Poor hosting or server speed
Using cheap shared hosting? Your backend may be the bottleneck. Consider moving to faster infrastructure or adding a CDN like Cloudflare.
What to Ask Your Dev Team (Even If You’re Not Technical)
Here are three questions you can bring to your next product or marketing meeting:
- How are we scoring on Core Web Vitals right now?
- What’s our LCP and CLS on mobile?
- Are we optimizing images, scripts, and server responses?
This signals that you care about UX, and it encourages your team to prioritize performance — without micromanaging.
The ROI of Better Core Web Vitals
Improving your Core Web Vitals can lead to:
- Faster page loads = higher conversions
- Better UX = higher retention
- Better search rankings = more organic traffic
- Lower bounce rates = better ad performance
It’s one of the highest ROI technical optimizations you can make as a founder — especially early on.
Need Help? I’ve Got You.
If you’re a SaaS founder or startup owner and this all feels overwhelming — don’t worry. You don’t need to become a developer to make smart performance decisions.
I help non-technical founders:
- Understand what’s slowing their site down
- Interpret Core Web Vitals reports
- Work with devs to fix the right things (without wasting budget)
If you’d like a free walkthrough of your Core Web Vitals report, or want help improving your product’s speed and UX — just contact me. I’d love to chat.
Final Thoughts
You’ve put in the effort to build something amazing. Don’t let slow pages and avoidable bugs be the reason users leave.
Core Web Vitals are more than just tech buzzwords — they’re how Google and your users judge your product before they ever log in.
Prioritize performance now, and you’ll build a smoother, faster, more trusted experience that scales with your growth.