High impactPerformance
Slow Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
LCP over 2.5 seconds fails Core Web Vitals. Here's a step-by-step fix that actually moves the metric.
What it means
The largest visible element on the page (usually a hero image or headline) takes more than 2.5 seconds to render on real-world mobile.
Why it matters
LCP is a Core Web Vitals metric and a Google ranking signal. It's also the most noticeable performance issue to real users.
How to fix it
- Identify the LCP element in PageSpeed Insights.
- Preload it: <link rel="preload" as="image" href="..." fetchpriority="high">.
- Serve it as WebP, sized to actual rendered dimensions.
- Don't lazy-load the LCP image.
- Inline critical CSS for the above-the-fold section.
- Move render-blocking scripts to <body> or add defer.
Find this issue on your site automatically
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Frequently asked questions
What's the LCP target?
Under 2.5s on mobile. Under 1.8s puts you in "Good" territory comfortably.
Related issues
Images Not Optimized
Oversized images are the #1 cause of slow LCP. Here's how to compress, convert, and serve them right.
Render-Blocking Resources
CSS and JS in the <head> block rendering. Here's how to defer or inline them safely.
High Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)
Pages that jump around as they load fail CLS. Here's how to lock the layout in place.