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Somehow, the tech bros have made page speed way harder than it needs to be.
Between Speed Index, First Contentful Paint, Largest Contentful Paint, and whatever else those audit tools throw at you, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed.
Not to mention, tools like Ubersuggest give you one score, Google gives you another, and suddenly you’re left wondering: which number actually matters?
Let me save you a headache: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is the one you should focus on.
LCP is what Google really cares about when it comes to ranking your site, and once you understand it, improving your page speed becomes way more manageable.
What is LCP?
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a measure of how long it takes for the largest, most important piece of content on your website to appear on the screen.
This could be a big hero image, a video, or even a large block of text- whatever takes up the most space in the viewport (that’s just a fancy word for the visible part of the page).
To be clear: “Largest” doesn’t mean the file size or the pixel dimensions of the uploaded content. It’s what takes up the most space on the screen.
So even if your image file is small, if it’s the biggest thing visitors see when they land on your page, that’s what counts for LCP.
Why does it matter?
If that key piece of content takes too long to load, your visitors might get frustrated and bounce.
Plus, Google watches this stuff. They want fast, user-friendly websites, so if your LCP is slow (anything over 2.5-3 seconds), your rankings might take a hit.
Why is LCP Important for SEO?
People aren’t exactly patient online.
If your website takes forever to load, chances are, visitors are going to leave before they even see what you have to offer.
The faster your main content loads (–> that’s where LCP comes in), the more likely people are to stick around.
But it’s not just about keeping visitors happy.
Google also cares about speed.
LCP is one of the Core Web Vitals, which are key factors Google uses to rank websites.
If your LCP is slow, it could hurt your SEO rankings, making it harder for people to even find your website in the first place.
In short: a faster LCP equals better SEO, happier visitors, and a better chance of people sticking around long enough to convert.
How To Check Your Page Speed
- Go to https://pagespeed.web.dev/
- Type in your URL and hit Analyze
- Make sure you’re displaying mobile results
- Note your LCP– that’s the “page speed” you care about!
What Affects LCP?
Here are the usual suspects that could be dragging your LCP score down:
Images
In my experience, big images (like those huge hero banners) are one of the main reasons LCP slows down.
If your images aren’t optimized, they can take too long to load, leaving visitors waiting for the page to appear.
Even smaller images like product shots or background visuals can be an issue if they aren’t sized or compressed properly.
Videos
Got a video front and center on your homepage?
That’s awesome for engagement, but it could also be slowing down your LCP (everything is a tradeoff, right?).
Especially if it’s set to autoplay, it can delay how quickly the main content appears.
Text Blocks
It’s not just about images and videos, big blocks of text can slow things down too, particularly if you’re using custom fonts.
Those fonts take time to load, and that can add a delay to when the most important content becomes visible.
CSS and JavaScript
Here’s where it gets a little techy, but I promise it’s important.
CSS (which handles your site’s layout and design) and JavaScript (which controls interactivity, the fiddly, moving bits) need to load before your key content can appear.
So, even if they don’t directly affect the size of an image or text, they can still slow down LCP because the browser has to process them first.
Fancy Fonts
Love using custom fonts on your site? Totally get it. But those fonts have to load before your text appears, which can cause delays.
You might want to consider using system fonts, optimizing how your custom fonts load and/or limiting your custom fonts to no more than TWO to speed things up.
How to Improve Your LCP
Okay, so we know what slows LCP down, now let’s talk about how to fix it.
Here are a few simple, actionable steps you can take to improve your LCP and make sure your site loads faster.
1. Compress and Optimize Your Images
This is one of the easiest and most effective fixes. Use tools like TinyPNG to compress your images before uploading them.
This reduces their file size without hurting quality. You can also switch to next-gen formats like WebP, which are designed to load faster.
2. Lazy Load Your Videos
If you’re using videos on your site, make sure they’re set to lazy load.
This means the video will only load when a visitor scrolls down to it, so it doesn’t hold up the rest of your page.
There are plenty of WordPress plugins, like WP Rocket, that make this easy to set up.
3. Minify Your CSS and JavaScript
Sounds complicated, but it’s not! Minifying just means cleaning up your CSS and JavaScript files by removing unnecessary spaces and comments, so they load faster. Plugins like WPRocket or Autoptimize can do this for you with just a few clicks.
4. Use System Fonts or Optimize Custom Fonts
Custom fonts can be fun, but they can also slow down your site.
If you love your custom fonts, just make sure to load them efficiently: using the font-display: swap; property ensures your text shows up right away, even if the font takes a second to load.
Enabling font swap makes sure your visitors can see your content immediately, even while custom fonts are loading in the background.
This helps create a smoother user experience, and as a bonus, it can improve your SEO by speeding up your page’s load time.
ProTip: How to Use Font Swap to Speed Up Font Loading
Custom fonts are super fun and a major branding asset, but they can also slow down your website if they take too long to load.
The good news is that you can fix this by enabling a font swap, which makes sure your text appears right away with a “fallback” font while the custom font loads in the background.
The bad news is, this can be a bit of a technical task.
For most people, the easiest option is to ask a developer to handle this, unless your platform or page builder offers an easy toggle.
For example, if you’re using Elementor on WordPress, turning on font swap is super simple.
How to Turn on Font Swap in Elementor:
- Go to your WordPress dashboard.
- Navigate to Elementor > Settings.
- Click on the Advanced tab.
- Scroll down to “Google Fonts Load”.
- Find the option labeled “Swap” and toggle it on.That’s it!
5. Upgrade Your Hosting
Sometimes, no matter how much optimizing you do, your hosting provider is the bottleneck.
If you’re on WordPress, consider upgrading to a faster host (especially if you’re on shared hosting).
Managed WordPress hosts like Rocket.net or WP Engine are designed for speed and could make a huge difference in your LCP.
If you’re on an all-in-one platform, and you’ve done what you can with images and interactive elements, reach out to customer support to see if they can assist you in speeding things up on the backend.
Feeling Intimidated? Start Here.
Improving your website’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) isn’t as intimidating as it sounds.
And, it’s important to remember it’s not just about keeping visitors happy (though that’s super important).
A faster LCP can also seriously improve your SEO, helping you rank higher in Google and get more eyes on your content.
If you’re feeling intimidating- just start by optimizing the images on your home page.
That’s it.
Compress them, re-upload them and check your page speed again.
I bet it made a difference!
If you read this far but you’re thinking, “Wow, this is all overwhelming!”, I’ve got you covered.
SEO is my jam, and I’m here to help simplify things.
Let’s talk about where YOU should start and how I can lighten your load. Book a free call, and let’s get your SEO on the right track together.
