The most comprehensive and informative paint explained: How To Improve Your Time-to-Pay (r) (r)

Are you struggling to figure out how to enhance the Largest Contentful Paint of your website? You may not know the meaning of Largest Contentful Paint means and the reason you should care about it in the first place?

Whatever point you're beginning with this guide, it's for you because you're going discover everything is required to learn regarding Largest Contentful Paint.

This includes understanding the definition of what Largest Contentful Paint means, why it matters, how to determine it, and how to improve it.

The table of contents to jump to a specific part based on the existing knowledge. Or, keep reading to start from the beginning.

What is the largest Quality Contentful Paint (LCP)? What is the largest Contentful Paint? Significance

Largest Contentful Paint is an performance metric that measures how long it takes the main content of a web webpage to render.

On a more technical level The Largest Contentful Paint is the time it takes between the user initiating the page load until the largest image, text, or video has been rendered in the viewport.

What exactly does "main content" mean in terms of LCP?

Well, the main information will vary based on the actual page in question However, it can comprise any of the following:

• Text - more specifically blocks that have text nodes or other inline-level text elements.
• Image - elements inside an

element or

elements within an svg>.

• Video is any video element (it makes use of posters as the image).
• An element with an image as a background that can only be loaded using the CSS URL() function (it doesn't apply for CSS gradients).

Later in this post, you'll learn where to look for the Most Contentful and Largest Paint element for any page on your site.

The largest Contentful Paint vs. First Contentful Paint

One common question you might be asking is what's the distinction between the Largest Contentful Paint vs First Contentful Paint, another common measure of performance.

The two terms may be identical, their main difference is Largest Contentful Paint measures how time it takes the webpage's "main content" to load, whereas First Contentful Paint measures how long it takes for the "first object" to load ( whether or not it's the main content).

Basically:

• LCP = main content only
• FCP = first piece of material, not matter what that content is

As such this means that your LCP time will almost always be a bit longer than your FCP time because the "main content" element will not always be the first element to load.

What is the most important reason why your site's largest Color Time for Content What's the point?

There are two primary motives why your site's most Contentful Paint timings are important:

1. User experience
2. Search engine optimization

User Experience

The main reason you must be aware of the site's largest Contentful Paint is that this metric is a good indicator of your visitors' experience with regard to your site's performance.

A majority of visitors don't bother about the time it takes for your site to load each element and script. Instead, they are interested in how long it takes for them to see the most value out of your website.

Largest Contentful Paint does excellent job at trying to determine that "value" moment by observing how long it takes the main page to load.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) Optimization (SEO)

It's a sign that having slow Largest Contentful Paint times can be a drag on your site's performance on the search results provided by Google.

What can affect the most contentful Paint Scores?

Two "main" sorts of issues are able to affect a page's biggest Contentful Paint times:

1. What is the time it takes for your server to respond with the first HTML document.
2. How long it takes to load the LCP resource to be loaded.

Here are a few most frequently asked questions about this:

• Not using page caching The absence of page caching forces the server to do much more "work" before it can react with an HTML document.
• Slow hosting A slow hosting service is always going to be slow in TTFB regardless of what you do.

When your website's server is able to deliver the first HTML file, it might exist additional bottlenecks once it is time to load the primary content component.

Here are a few most frequently asked questions about this:

• Render-blocking JavaScript or CSS (or unoptimized/unnecessary code in general) - if the user's browser needs to download and/or process unnecessary JavaScript or CSS before it can load the main element, that will slow down your LCP.
• Images that are not optimized- if the LCP component is an image using unoptimized images will slow down your time because bigger images will take longer time to download.
• Unoptimized font loading- if the LCP element is text loading custom fonts that are not optimized can make it take longer to see the text show up.
• uncompressed fileIf you're not using compression technologies like Gzip or Brotli This will cause it take longer for the web browser of the user to download your website's file.

According to your website depending on your site, you may be facing congestion in all areas, or just in one. We'll help you solve all of these issues within the following blog.

What's the best largest time for a painting that is the most content?

Google defines the term "Good" largest contentful Paint time as being less than 2.5 seconds.

If your site's biggest contentful Paint time is between 2.5 and 4.0 seconds Google considers it "Needs improvement". When your page's speed is over 4.0 seconds, Google defines that as "Poor".

Here's an image taken from Google which illustrates this in a visual way:

How to Measure Largest Contentful Paint: Best LCP Test Instruments

PageSpeed Insights

1. It is possible to see your website's largest contentful Paint performance with real-world customers from the Chrome UX report ( if your site is able to attract enough users to warrant inclusion in this report).
2. You can run simulated tests to test how your website is performing.
3. Google will inform you of the exact LCP element it is using to test. This lets you know which component to improve.
4. Google offers suggestions on how to improve the speed of your LCP speed.

Here's how to use it:

1. Visit PageSpeed Insights. PageSpeed Insights website.
2. Enter the URL of the webpage which you would like to check.
3. Click Analyze.

Google will display results for both mobile and desktop. Make sure you verify both.

To locate the primary element that Google utilizes in calculating LCP, you can scroll down into the Diagnosticssection and expand the Largest Contentful Paint element section:

Also, be sure to check both mobile and desktop because the LCP part may differ for each.

Chrome Developer Tools

This is how you can start:

1. Go to the website you want to test.
2. Open Chrome Developer Tools.
3. Go to the tab for the Performance tab.
4. Check that the Web Vitals checkbox is checked.
5. Click the Reload button ( noted below).

Now you should see the full report of your website.

When you click on LCP under the Network tab, you can see the time:

When you click on LCP in the tab for Timings tab, you'll see the actual LCP component:

Google Search Console

Although Google Search Console doesn't let you test an individual page for its Largest Contentful Paint It is a great tool to evaluate the performance of the entire site.

Each page on your site will be different in LCP time, so it's not possible to test your homepage and call it the day.

After you've completed that, here's how to access the LCP report:

1. Start Google Search Console for your website.
2. Go to The Core Web Vitals under the Experience tab.
3. Click "Open Report" next to the Mobile or Desktop chart.
4. Find any problems in the reasons why URLs aren't considered to be good section. If you click on the issue, you'll be able to see more information about which URLs could be the cause of problems.

  *Make sure to check both the desktop and mobile results, as the data might be different in each.  

WebPageTest

Unlike PageSpeed Insights, WebPageTest lets you fully customize different testing parameters like the location of your test, connectivity speed, device, and much more. That's the main benefit of choosing it over other software - it gives you additional options for configuring the test.

Here's how to run an exam:

1. Go to WebPageTest.
2. Include the URL of the webpage you'd like to test.
3. Increase the Advanced Configuration options to customize your test.

In the page with results, you'll see the LCP data, along with many other performance metrics (including an analysis of waterfalls).

What is the most Contentful Paint Element

If you want to improve Largest Contentful Paint, it can be really useful to understand exactly what element Google is using to calculate your LCP time.

If, for instance, you realize that Google has chosen to use your image to serve as the LCP component on your homepage, you know you must find ways to make it available to that image as quickly as possible in order to increase your homepage's LCP speed.

As we mentioned earlier, you can locate your largest Contentful Paint element through PageSpeed Insights, or Google Developer Tools.

  Check both mobile and desktop results, as your LCP element may differ on different devices.  

How to Improve the Largest Contentful Painter in WordPress (or Other Platforms)

Once you've mastered the basics about Largest Contentful Paint, let's get into some actionable tips for how to improve Largest Contentful Paint on WordPress.

Although we'll focus specifically on WordPress in these suggestions but all the guidelines can be applied to all types of sites.

Set Up Caching to Improve the Server's Respond Time

Upgrade to faster WordPress Hosting

Though all the methods on this list can help you improve your LCP time It's not a good idea to beat at the drum:

You might be able to make things a little better, but you'll always have a hard time achieving less than 2.5-second LCP times if your host is slow.

That means you can focus on improving your website instead of tinkering with the optimization of the most content-rich Paint time.

If you're still on fence - try the rest of the tips on this list before you do anything else. But if you're still struggling even after completing everything on this list, it's possible that you require a better host.

Utilize a Content Delivery Network (CDN)

If you don't have a CDN all your site's visitors need to download a page's HTML and static assets from your hosting server.

If your site's visitors reside close to your server that's not usually an issue. If your site's visitors are spread out around the world, this could cause your website to slow down due to the distance between them and your site's server.

This means that your site's users can download your entire page from the nearest edge, which speeds up both server response time and how long it will take for your LCP resource to download.

If your site is hosted elsewhere, you can set up an CDN for your site's static assets using well-known CDN services such as KeyCDN, Bunny, StackPath as well as other services.

Beware of Render-Blocking JavaScript (Defer or Remove)

Render-blocking JavaScript is JavaScript that starts loading prior to the primary LCP component even although it's in no use at that time.

If you delay loading the LCP element, it will slow down the LCP load time.

To fix this, there are several strategies are possible to implement:

• Eliminate unnecessary JavaScript as much as you can.
• You can defer the JavaScript to ensure that it isn't hindering the main elements of your website.
• You can delay the JavaScript until the user has a chance to interact with your page.

For a full guide on how to do this, check out two extremely thorough posts:

Avoid Render-Blocking CSS and Optimize CSS Delivery

Similar to how unoptimized JavaScript will slow your website down, unoptimized CSS will perform the same.

Essentially, you want to load as minimal CSS as possible. And for the CSS which you need to load, you want to load the CSS in a way that is optimal. In general, that means you should load the most important CSS in the early stages, and delay loading non-critical CSS to later on when loading.

For example, WP Rocket offers built-in tools to eliminate unneeded CSS in a pagina-by-page manner and serve CSS in an optimal way.

Minimize your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

As well as the techniques for optimizing code mentioned above You'll also need to reduce the size of your website's HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

In essence, it removes unneeded spaces and characters from your site's code to shrink the dimension.

1. Open your site's dashboard inside My.
2. Go to and click on the CDN tab.
3. Go to Settings below Image Optimization.
4. Check the boxes to see if you are using CSS and JQuery and save settings.

Make use of server-level compression (Gzip as well as Brotli)

The compression technique we utilize on the homepage has reduces the size of the homepage by 85.82 percentage.

If you host your WordPress site with Brotli , it's not necessary to be concerned about it since Brotli allows compression of all WordPress sites in one click.

If you're making use of Cloudflare to serve your site's contents, Cloudflare also has a integrated setting that allows Brotli compression.

1. Open your site in the cloudflare's dashboard.
2. Visit Speed and Optimization in the sidebar menu.
3. Turn on the Brotli button.

Compress and Resize Images

If the LCP element includes an image, finding ways to reduce the size of that image will cut down on the time it takes a user's browser to download the image (and thus speed up your LCP time).

How to activate this feature:

1. Open your site's dashboard within My.
2. Visit the CDN tab.
3. Go to Settings next to the option Image Optimization.
4. Pick the best level of the image's optimization, and save your the settings. Lossy is the best option for speeds improvements, but it may have a slight impact on image quality.

Make sure you preload the largest contentful Paint Image

If the LCP component has an image in it, another option to boost LCP is to load the largest contentful Paint image. This is the reason you may find a recommendation such as "Preload the Largest Contentful Paint picture" within PageSpeed Insights.

By using preload, you are able to tell a user's browser to prioritize downloading specific sources, like the specific image that is your site's LCP element.

The most non-technical way to load LCP images is by using an application like Perfmatters that has the Preload Critical Images feature. All you need to specify is the number of images you want to preload - we recommend just start with one as the preloading of too many images may have an adverse effect.

There are also a few free plugins available on WordPress.org to achieve this, such as the WPZOOM Preload Featured Image plugin, as well as additional premium plugins, for instance FlyingPress.

Check for Lazy Loading Issues

This could also trigger an "Largest Contentful Paint image has been lazy in loading" warning in PageSpeed Insights.

Lazy loading lets you speed up your site's initial loading time by waiting to load certain resources (like images) until users begin interaction with your site.

Although this is generally a great thing, it can slow down your LCP times if your site attempts to load the image which is the LCP element. To avoid this, you'll want to make sure that your site isn't loading any images visible from the viewport that you initially opened.

If you want to exclude more than the first image, you can use the wp_omit_loading_attr_threshold function (but most people won't need to do anything here).

However, if you're employing a JavaScript-powered lazy load plugin, you may need to manually set up the exclusion within the plugin's settings. In this case, for instance, the Perfmatters plugin has the option to block the first "X" image from lazy loading.

If your lazy loading plugin isn't letting you create this kind of exclusion, you can switch to a different plugin which does.

Optimize Font Loading with Font-Display: Optional

If your LCP component is text-based The load time for fonts may delay the appearance of the text, which can slow down your LCP time.

To correct this issue to fix this, try using the Font-Display Optional CSS descriptor.

The browser will choose a default font when the custom font doesn't load within a small window (usually around 100ms or less).

Simply put, this basically means that your browser needs to allow the font of your choice an opportunity to load. If the custom font doesn't load quickly enough, then the browser must just use a fallback system font in order to not delay the page to any more.

If your font of choice is not vital to the website's layout, Font-Display: Optional is usually the best option from a Core Web Vitals perspective.

If you do not want to make use of CSS, you can also find plugins to help you do this, though they tend to be focused on making sure that they are optimized to work with Google Fonts:

• Asset Cleanup - supports Google Fonts for free and customized local fonts when using the Pro version.
• Perfmatters offers a function for Google Fonts.

If you're using Elementor to build your website, Elementor also includes a integrated option that allows you to use this for pages that you create with Elementor:

1. Click here to go to Elementor - Settings.
2. Go to the Advanced tab.
3. Set to the Google Fonts Load drop-down as optional.

Summary

The art of improving Largest Contentful Paint's capabilities is crucial in improving the user experience as well as maximizing your rankings on search engines.

There are generally two parts that can be improved by Largest Contentful Painting - speeding up your server response time, and also optimizing the code of your website to render the LCP element as quickly as you can.

If you're not willing to fret about slow server response time, move your WordPress site to . 's performance-optimized architecture is specifically designed to deliver your site as quickly as possible.

In addition, thanks to the Edge Caching feature, you can cache your site's pages on Cloudflare's worldwide network, meaning that visitors from over the world can enjoy the lightning-fast response of servers (and accordingly the lightning-fast LCP times).

• Simple setup and management on My Dashboard. My dashboard
• Support is available 24/7.
• The most efficient Google Cloud Platform hardware and network, driven by Kubernetes for the highest scalability
• An enterprise-level Cloudflare integration to speed up and security
• Global audience reach with more than 35 data centers, and more than 275 PoPs across the globe