Every fast website has one thing in common: the most important element on the page appears almost instantly. That moment when the hero image, featured banner, or prominent heading fully loads is what Google measures as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). When it lags, the whole page feels sluggish. Users perceive the delay even if other content loads quickly. This affects attention, rankings, and conversions. Understanding how to improve LCP can transform your site into a faster, more engaging digital experience.
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What is LCP and Why It Matters for Your Website’s Performance
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) tracks how long the largest visual element on a page becomes visible. Often, this is a hero image, a primary banner, or a main text block. LCP is a critical metric in user experience because it shapes first impressions.
A fast LCP signals that the page is responsive, trustworthy, and usable, while a slow LCP can make even a beautifully designed site feel heavy and frustrating.
Optimising LCP improves not just metrics, but the way users engage with your website. It directly influences bounce rates, dwell time, and ultimately conversion potential.
What Causes Poor LCP? The Real Bottlenecks You Should Know
A slow LCP usually stems from multiple small delays that compound. The biggest culprits include:
- Large hero images that are not optimised for web performance
- Slow server response times that delay the first byte of data
- Render-blocking CSS and JavaScript that force browsers to wait
- Above-the-fold media, such as carousels, banners, and videos that load inefficiently
- Poor resource prioritisation, where non-essential files load before critical elements
Individually, these issues might seem minor. Together, they create a bottleneck that users notice immediately. Fixing them requires a careful approach combining design, development, and performance strategy.
How to Improve LCP: A Step-by-Step Roadmap
- Compress and Optimise Images for Web Performance
The simplest, often-overlooked solution is optimising hero images.
Oversized banners or high-resolution images can drastically slow down the main content load.
Converting images to lighter formats like WebP or AVIF, resizing to appropriate dimensions, and compressing without losing clarity accelerates load times. While lazy loading images is ideal for secondary visuals, your hero section should load immediately. Correct image optimisation alone often delivers a significant jump in LCP performance.
- Implement Lazy Loading the Right Way
The best way to lazy load images for LCP improvement is essential for pages rich with visuals. It defers off-screen photos and videos until users scroll, allowing the browser to prioritise above-the-fold content. However, avoid lazy-loading your hero image or primary text block; these are LCP-critical. Proper lazy loading ensures faster initial paint, better perceived performance, and smoother scrolling.
- Preload Critical Resources
Preloading tells the browser which resources to fetch first, such as fonts, hero images, and essential CSS and helps to optimise load speed. Preload directives reduce delays, allowing the most prominent contentful element to appear sooner. This step is crucial for high-impact pages where perception matters.
- Fix Render-Blocking CSS and JavaScript
Render-blocking scripts prevent the browser from painting critical content until the files are fully loaded. By deferring nonessential JS, inlining critical CSS, or splitting scripts, you let the browser render key visuals faster. This reduces delays in improving LCP without compromising design or functionality.
- Reduce Server Response Time
Slow servers delay the first byte of a page, immediately affecting LCP. Improvements include:
- Upgrading hosting
- Using server-side caching
- Optimising database queries
- Employing Content Delivery Networks (CDNs)
Reduced server response times make your page feel fast from the first interaction.
- Speed Up Page Load Time With Smart Delivery Techniques
Beyond images and scripts, the way content is delivered matters. Adaptive loading, modern image formats, prioritised requests, and minimal network overhead streamline page rendering and optimise load speed. Each unnecessary resource removed helps the browser focus on the largest visible elements first.
- Use a CDN for Global Delivery
CDNs distribute your website across multiple servers worldwide. By shortening the distance between server and user, they reduce latency and improve LCP for audiences in different regions. Large hero images, videos, or interactive banners load faster when served from geographically closer nodes.
- Optimise the Critical Rendering Path
The critical rendering path is the sequence browsers follow to convert code into visible content. Minimising what the browser must process before painting, such as heavy CSS, unneeded scripts, or large assets, improves the critical rendering path and directly accelerates LCP.
Tools to Measure LCP
Understanding what slows your page requires diagnostics. Tools include:
- PageSpeed Insights highlights LCP and offers optimisation suggestions
- Lighthouse provides detailed metrics and identifies render-blocking resources.
- WebPageTest tracks visual rendering timings across devices.
- Chrome DevTools enables inspection of the critical rendering path and server response.
They highlight whether the issue is a large image, a slow server, blocking scripts or inefficient networking. Such tools not only show your LCP score but also break down why it behaves the way it does, allowing you to fix the root cause instead of relying on guesswork.
The Human Side of Page Speed: Why LCP Feels Different to Users
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) isn’t just a technical metric; it directly shapes how users perceive your website. A page that loads its main content quickly creates a sense of flow and responsiveness, almost as if the website is anticipating the user’s needs.
Conversely, a lagging LCP feels like invisible resistance, and even minor delays increase bounce rates and reduce conversions. Users don’t consciously measure page speed; they think it. That split-second hesitation can determine whether they stay, scroll, or abandon the page.
Optimising LCP is therefore about more than performance scores; it’s about removing micro-frictions.
Mistakes That Make LCP Worse
Several common technical missteps sabotage LCP, often unnoticed until users react negatively:
- Oversized visuals above the fold: Large hero images or banners without compression can delay the first meaningful paint.
- Loading everything at once: Unprioritised assets create network congestion, slowing down the most significant visual element.
- Unoptimised external scripts: Third-party libraries for chat widgets, analytics, or ads can block rendering.
- Heavy animations during page load: Complex animations or carousels tie up the browser before LCP can be recorded.
- Delayed font loading: Fonts that aren’t preloaded or that block text rendering increase perceived load time.
These issues may seem minor. Together, they form a chain of delays that directly impacts the largest contentful paint and user experience. Addressing each, by reducing server response time for LCP, compressing images, preloading essential fonts, and optimising CSS and JavaScript, creates a noticeably faster, smoother, and more engaging website.
Also read: The Role Of Schema Markup In Al-Driven Search Rankings
Final Checklist to Improve LCP
Optimise Hero Images – Compress, resize, and convert to modern formats to reduce load time and improve visual stability.
Use Lazy Loading Images Strategically – Apply lazy loading to below-the-fold visuals while keeping the LCP element immediately visible.
Preload Critical Resources – Fonts, hero images, and essential CSS should be preloaded to speed up rendering.
Fix Render-Blocking CSS & JavaScript – Defer or remove unnecessary scripts and inline critical CSS for faster first paint.
Reduce Server Response Time for LCP – Optimise backend performance, use caching, and choose fast hosting to lower TTFB.
Optimise the Critical Rendering Path – Minimise resources the browser must process upfront; prioritise visible content.
Compress Images for Better LCP Performance – Use tools to reduce file size without sacrificing quality.
Preload Key Fonts and Media – Ensure important elements render instantly, improving both perceived and actual LCP.
Use a CDN for Global Delivery – Distribute resources closer to users to reduce latency and speed up load times.
Monitor LCP Regularly – Use PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse, or WebPageTest to track improvements and identify new bottlenecks.
Following this checklist ensures that your largest contentful paint (LCP) is fast, your page feels responsive, and your users stay engaged from the very first glance.
EchoVME: Your Digital Partner
At Echovme, we craft experiences that drive measurable results. Every strategy we design, every campaign we execute, and every tool we implement is rooted in deep expertise, data-driven insights, and a clear understanding of what makes brands truly connect with their audiences. From content strategy and social media engagement to advanced performance analytics, we ensure every touchpoint aligns with the brand’s voice and business goals.
Partnering with us means having a team that is as invested in your success as you are. We take ownership of challenges, embrace innovation, and make sure that your brand doesn’t just exist online, it thrives.
Final Thoughts
In the end, LCP isn’t about chasing a metric; it’s about shaping perception. It’s about delivering clarity without delay. And when you consistently optimise your website stops being just another page, it becomes a page people want to return to.
FAQs
1. How can I improve my LCP score quickly?
The fastest improvements usually come from optimising hero images, reducing server delays and removing blocking scripts. These directly influence how soon your main content becomes visible.
2. What tools can help me measure LCP accurately?
PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse and WebPageTest offer clear readings and diagnostic details that show what affects your current LCP performance.
3. How does image optimisation affect LCP?
Reducing file size, using modern formats, and resizing images help browsers render the main visual element faster, which noticeably improves LCP.
4. Is LCP important for SEO?
LCP plays a role in user experience metrics that search engines consider. Faster LCP often aligns with stronger performance signals.
5. What slows down LCP the most?
Unoptimised images, slow servers, blocking scripts and inefficient loading strategies often contribute to slow LCP timings.
