What Is LCP and How Do I Improve It?
LCP, Largest Contentful Paint, measures when the largest visible element of your page, usually the hero image or headline block, finishes appearing. Good is under 2.5 seconds, poor is over 4. It is the Core Web Vital most sites fail, and it has three fixes that work almost every time.
The three fixes
- Compress and resize the hero image, and serve it as WebP. Oversized heroes are the number one cause of poor LCP.
- Preload the hero image so the browser fetches it before discovering it in the HTML.
- Remove render blocking scripts and fonts from above the fold, or defer them.
Check your score free
Run any page through the Core Web Vitals Checker to get your LCP alongside INP and CLS. Then re check with the On-Page SEO Checker to confirm nothing else regressed while you optimized.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does LCP directly affect rankings?
It is a small factor, but poor LCP also correlates with higher bounce, which compounds.
What about lazy loading the hero?
Never lazy load the LCP element. Load it eagerly, preload it, compress it.
Related reading
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