LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
Largest Contentful Paint, or LCP, measures how long it takes for the largest visible element, usually a hero image or a main heading block, to appear after a page begins loading. Google considers 2.5 seconds or less a good result.
In practice
What it means when you are the one making the decision.
LCP reflects what the visitor perceives as the page being loaded. Common causes of a slow LCP are oversized images, slow server responses, render-blocking scripts and fonts that delay text. The fix depends on which element is the largest and what holds it up.
Practical improvements include sizing and compressing the main image, giving it a high loading priority, avoiding lazy-loading the first image, keeping critical styles light and delaying non-essential scripts. Always test on a mid-range phone, not only a fast laptop.
Example
A homepage uses a 3 MB banner image. After resizing it to the display size and loading it as a priority, the largest element appears much sooner.
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