Core Web Vitals
Also known as: CWV
Google's page-experience signals - Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), Interaction to Next Paint (INP). Directly affect rank in Google surfaces including Gemini + AI Overviews.
Core Web Vitals are Google's standardized measures of page-experience quality: LCP (largest content element paint time, <2.5s target), CLS (visual stability, <0.1 target), INP (interactivity latency, <200ms target).
For traditional Google Search, Core Web Vitals are one ranking signal among many. For Gemini + AI Overviews + Google Search's agentic surfaces, Core Web Vitals are meaningfully more weighted. A slow product page loses rank across the whole Google ecosystem simultaneously.
Common fixes: image optimization (WebP/AVIF), font loading strategy (font-display: swap; preload critical fonts), third-party script deferral, server-side rendering, edge caching.
If you're doing site-technical health work as part of AI Search Visibility optimization, Core Web Vitals is the first checklist. Green tier on all three is table stakes for Gemini rank.
See also
Gemini shopping
Google's agentic commerce surfaces - Gemini chat, AI Overviews in Search, Buy for Me. All powered by the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP).
AI Overviews
Google's AI-generated summary that sits above traditional search results for many queries - increasingly the primary shopping surface for Google-native shoppers.
GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)
The discipline of making a brand or product surface in AI-generated content - mentioned, cited, or recommended by generative AI models. Broader than AEO by including AI-generated recommendations, not just answer citations.