Fix slow Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
Make the biggest visible element on your page load in under 2.5 seconds.
What it means
LCP measures how long it takes for the largest element a visitor sees — usually a hero image or headline — to appear on screen. Google considers anything over 4 seconds poor and under 2.5 seconds good.
Why it matters
Visitors decide within seconds whether a page is worth waiting for, and Google ranks slow pages lower. Every extra second of LCP measurably increases the share of people who leave before seeing your offer.
How to fix it
- Find the exact element in PageSpeed Insights (the 'Largest Contentful Paint' audit names it). In most sites it's the hero image or an H1.
- If it's an image: compress it (TinyPNG or Squoosh), resize it to the largest size actually displayed, and serve it in WebP or AVIF format.
- Add fetchpriority="high" and a preload link for the hero image so the browser starts downloading it immediately.
- Serve the page through a CDN so the image travels a short physical distance to the visitor.
- Remove render-blocking scripts and fonts in the page head so the browser can start painting sooner (see our render-blocking guide).
- Re-run your audit after each change — LCP improvements are cumulative and easy to verify.
Helpful tools
- PageSpeed Insights
- Squoosh (image compression)
- WebPageTest (waterfall view)
Not sure if this affects your site? Analyze your website for free or compare it with a competitor.
Related guides
- Stop layout shifting (CLS): Reserve space for images and embeds so the page stops jumping while loading.
- Reduce Total Blocking Time (TBT): Break up long JavaScript tasks so the page stays responsive to taps and clicks.
- Improve mobile page performance: Cut image weight, JavaScript, and server lag so the page loads fast on phones.
- Convert images to WebP or AVIF: Modern image formats are 25–50% smaller than JPEG/PNG at the same visual quality.