Explanation Of Largest Contentful Paint (Lcp)

 Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is an indicator of how long it takes to load the main content of a web page. Fortunately, in this article you will learn all about LCP, how to measure LCP, why it is important for SEO and how to optimise it.

What Size Contentful Paint Do You Have?

The greatest content painting is one of the top three web vitals. And if you're wondering why this article talked about the LCP of the top 3 online metrics, here's why.

 Google CEO Philip Walton recently said, based on public data in his Chrome User Experience Report, that LCP indicates how well websites are struggling with most of the three Web Vitals.

LCP measures the time it takes for the main page content to load and allow the user to interact.

 This parameter takes into account the largest block of content or image that is at the top of the screen or in the user's view (items visible after scrolling are not counted).Also, LCP only considers the loading times of some items, including:

photos

video thumbnails

image tags

Exactly why is LCP crucial for SEO?

Users rarely wait for a page to fully load. The page may close suddenly if it takes too long to load. Google sees this as a sign of poor user experience.

 This user behavior also causes your website to have a higher bounce rate. An increase in bounce rate is a bad sign for SEO. 

Also, slow page load speeds that affect LCP can negatively impact conversion rates and overall traffic flow.This can affect the company's return on investment, which is by far the least desirable for the company.

 Let's take a practical example.

 In 2021, Google released an analysis of Groupe Renault's conversion rate after adjusting its performance metric, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Their discovery was surprising because the conversion rate dropped by 50% when latency increased by 3 seconds.

 However, if you want to increase your website's visibility and rank higher in search results, you need to optimise your LCP to generate higher profit margins.Yes, the color with the highest content is that important.

How is LCP Measuring Done?

Before you learn how to optimize your LCP, you need to know your website's current LCP score. This way you can decide how much effort you need to invest in LCP optimization. LCP measurements are possible with field and laboratory devices. What is the difference?

 Using the on-site tool gives you an actual measurement of your target location, while the lab tool creates a virtual score based on simulated crawling and using algorithms that estimate internet conditions a mobile user might encounter. First, we list the field tools that can be used to calculate the LCP.You can use the PageSpeed ​​​​Insights tool to measure the LCP of your websites.

 This tool displays your website's LCP score for both desktop and mobile devices. Besides the LCP, this tool also informs you about the results of other online indicators. B. MmFirst Input Delay (FID) and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

 You can also check your website's LCP by accessing the Core Web Vitals report in Google Search Console. In addition, you can measure your LCP with the Chrome User Experience Report.

 However, we recommend using the first two methods as they are simpler. We then describe the experimental LCP measuring devices.

 Chrome DevTools

 Lighthouse

 Web Page Test

 Of these three lab tools, Chrome Dev Tools and Lighthouse are provided by Google while WebPageTest is a third-party tool.

A Food LCP Score is what?

AROUND. Now you know how to measure your website's LCP score. But how do you know if your LCP is good or how far you are from a good LCP?

 Let me explain what the LCP result looks like.

 According to Google guidelines, for a good LCP, the main content of the page should load in 2.5 seconds, after that the user should be able to visit it.

 This simply means that Google considers it a good page load if a page loads in less than 2.5 seconds for at least 75% of visitors. On the other hand, if the page loads in about 4 seconds, that means the LCP needs improvement. Also, a time greater than 4 seconds indicates a faulty LCP.

How can LCP be improved?

Now let's get to the most important part. If your LCP is good, keep up the good work. On the other hand, if your LCP needs tweaking (which it probably does), here's how to fix it.

Improve Your Image

As mentioned above, images affect the LCP. So, to get a good LCP score, you need to make sure your images are properly optimized.

 Here are some ways to enhance your photos;

 Use specific image dimensions for desktop and mobile.

 Compress the image so as not to degrade the image quality.

 Use a supported image format.

 Avoid GIFs. Use videos instead

Pick your website design carefully.

Personalizing your website is a great way to make it stand out from the crowd. However, integrating JavaScript and CSS to create your website's theme and content can impact page load speed. Aim for a cleaner website design that doesn't require many plugins, especially at the top of the page screen. Remember to remove render-blocking JavaScript and CSS.

 After all, you don't always need a flowery, graphic-rich website design to create a great atmosphere and visuals.Even a smaller site can achieve this, especially if you can prioritize what your site needs and doesn't need.

Improve fonts

Some fonts come with larger files. What does this mean for your website?

Using such fonts on your website can slow down the loading of text elements on your website, causing users to wait for the main content to appear, resulting in a poor LCP.

 Therefore, adjust the font style and font size accordingly to enable fast loading and avoid poor user experience.

Fix Slow Loading Problems

Lazy loading is a technique that avoids loading non-critical CSS and other resources when the page is first rendered and focuses on loading the content into view above the page fold line.

This allows content to appear quickly in the user's view while other resources load slowly. Lazy loading techniques can complement the LCP. However, some slow loading issues can negatively impact your site's LCP score.

 For example, if your website uses native slow loading and all images, including the featured one, load slowly, you will get a negative LCP score.This can also happen when lazy loading with JavaScript. It takes some time for the image to load completely as the browser has to execute JavaScript before the image can be rendered.

Conclusion 

Of the top three web imperatives, content is the one that most websites struggle with. To improve LCP, spend more time loading the page by downloading LCP elements and reduce time spent on other resources. Remember: anything that prevents your site's LCP elements from loading as quickly as possible is a waste of time, slows down page loading, and is counterproductive.

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