Why do I keep emphasizing superfast, high-performing websites? Web performance is a crucial aspect of the work I do and goes hand-in-hand with accessibility to create experiences that work best for the highest number of people.
And it's not just me that thinks so. Google has a plethora of content dedicated to it. Mozilla is also extensively involved. But why should you care?
Imagine heading to the shops at lunchtime in the middle of the week. The roads are quiet because the young people are still in bed, the old folks have already been out shopping and are having a nap, and everyone in between is probably at work. You can either drive or wait for a train that invariably doesn't show up (or is too full or is replaced by a bus service that smells funny, might break down, and is probably also full).
You'll likely get there eventually, whichever method you choose, but let's face it. The roads are quiet, and your ever-reliable Ford Fiesta will always get you there faster than the British rail networks.
Now, consider you have an e-commerce website selling custom-knitted pet likenesses at weknityourpet.com, hosted on a solar-powered, shared web host on the dark side of the Moon. Your competitors run weknityourpetfast.com, have it on a Content Delivery Network, and have gone all out on page performance. You managed to change all the long words for slightly shorter ones that mean the same, making your pages a bit smaller.
Sure, your customers might wait around the ten minutes it takes for somebody to wire up some real electricity to the solar-powered dark-side-of-the-moon servers to bring your site to life. But chances are, they won't.
Core Web Vitals (Part of what you see on Page Speed or if you ever run Lighthouse tests) is a set of Google site performance metrics they use to rate your site and rank it in search results.
It's straightforward on the surface: Make your site lean, fast, and quick to react, and you will perform better in search engines.
Not only will search engines love you, your customers will too.