Core Web Vitals: what actually matters in 2024
Which Core Web Vitals fixes move field data, and which are theatre.
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Web design and development
A website that earns its place in the funnel
Fast, accessible and search-ready from the first commit. We build sites where SEO, performance and conversion are design constraints rather than a later retrofit.
Web & CRO
High-performing websites and experiences that convert more visitors.
- Technical architecture document
- Accessible design system
- Implemented site and CMS
- Migration and redirect plan
- Post-launch monitoring report
The problem
What usually goes wrong
The expensive version of this problem is a beautiful site that renders its content client-side, ships 3MB of JavaScript, and quietly loses a third of its organic traffic at launch. Retrofitting performance and crawlability afterwards costs more than building it in.
Fit
Who this is for — and who it is not
We would rather tell you now than three months into an engagement.
A good fit if
- Businesses replatforming or rebuilding
- Sites where performance is measurably costing conversions
- Teams who want the SEO consequences considered during design, not after
Probably not right if
- Projects where the brief is purely visual with no commercial measure
- Rebuilds with no plan for migrating existing search equity
Outcomes
What this work is meant to produce
Commercial outcomes, stated without a ranking guarantee — because nobody can honestly offer one.
Core Web Vitals in the green
Field data, at the 75th percentile, on mobile.
Search equity preserved through migration
Redirect mapping built from real data before launch.
Accessible to WCAG 2.2 AA
Tested with a keyboard and a screen reader, not just an automated scan.
Content the team can actually edit
A CMS built around how the business publishes.
Scope
What is included
- 01
Technical architecture
Rendering strategy, caching and the SEO consequences of each choice.
- 02
Design system
Reusable, accessible components rather than page-by-page design.
- 03
CMS implementation
Structured content with validation and preview.
- 04
Performance budget
Enforced in CI so regressions are caught before release.
- 05
Migration planning
Redirect map, parity checks and post-launch monitoring.
- 06
Accessibility testing
Automated and manual, before launch.
Method
How we run it
Define the constraints
Performance, accessibility and SEO requirements agreed as acceptance criteria.
Design the system
Components first, pages second.
Build with budgets enforced
CI fails the build if the page gets too heavy.
Plan the migration
Redirects from crawl and Search Console data, not from a sitemap alone.
Launch and monitor
Daily index and vitals monitoring through the first month.
FAQ
Web & CRO questions
Will a rebuild hurt our rankings?
It can, and most of the damage is avoidable. Migrations lose traffic through broken redirects, changed URL structures and content that quietly disappears. Planned properly, with a redirect map built from real crawl data, the dip is small and short.
Can you guarantee results?
No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Auction platforms and search engines are third-party systems nobody controls. What we commit to is a documented plan, a baseline set before work starts, honest measurement, and a quarterly review where we look squarely at whether it is working.
Reading
Related insights
Talk to a web & cro specialist
A thirty-minute call with the people who would do the work. No pitch deck.