Page Speed and Core Web Vitals.
How fast pages load and how stable their layout is. Increasingly used as a signal across both Google and AI engine retrieval. Slow pages get crawled less and cited less.
How to improve page speed and core web vitals
- Use static site generation (Astro, Next.js, etc.) — avoid heavy JS for content pages
- Serve from a global CDN (Cloudflare Pages, Vercel, Netlify)
- Inline critical CSS, defer non-critical JS
- Optimize images (WebP/AVIF, proper dimensions)
- Use system fonts or display: swap for web fonts
- Minimize third-party scripts
How to measure progress
Run PageSpeed Insights on top 10 pages. Track LCP, INP, CLS over time. Aim for 90+ on every page.
Common mistakes that erode page speed and core web vitals
- Heavy JS frameworks for content sites that don't need them
- Unoptimized images blocking LCP
- Third-party analytics or chat widgets dragging performance
How CiterLabs handles page speed and core web vitals
CiterLabs is built on Astro + Cloudflare Pages — Lighthouse 100/100/100/100 is the default state.
Which AI engines weight this most
This factor most strongly affects citation decisions in:
- Google AI Overviews (Google (DeepMind / Search)) — Largest AI search surface by global query volume — appears on more than 40% of US Google searches as of 2026.
- Gemini (Google DeepMind) — Google's flagship AI assistant, integrated across Google Workspace, Android, and the web Gemini app.
- Perplexity AI (Perplexity) — Fastest-growing AI search engine by volume.
Want CiterLabs to ship page speed and core web vitals for you?
A 60-day GEO Sprint addresses page speed and core web vitals alongside the four other GEO mechanisms. Fixed fee, +20pt citation lift guarantee, full refund if we miss.