How to Improve Largest Contentful Paint in WordPress?

Is your WordPress website loading slowly? Is your audience bouncing off before your content even loads? This could be due to a metric known as Largest Contentful Paint in WordPress. A poor LCP score can significantly impact your website’s performance and user experience.

A slow-loading website not only frustrates visitors but also hurts your search engine rankings. Google prioritizes websites that offer a fast and seamless user experience. By neglecting LCP, you risk losing valuable organic traffic and potential customers.

So through this blog, I’ll explain what LCP is and how the WordPress experts work on improving it. Let’s begin.

Impact of Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) on WordPress

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a crucial web performance metric that measures the time it takes for the largest content element on a page to load and become visible to the user. This element could be a large image, a block of text, or a video thumbnail.

A good LCP score indicates that your website’s main content loads quickly, providing a positive user experience. A slow LCP, on the other hand, can lead to frustrated users who may abandon your site before they even see your content.

Google considers LCP to be one of the Core Web Vitals, a set of metrics that impact your website’s search engine ranking. By optimizing your website’s LCP, you can improve your search visibility and attract more organic traffic.

What is the Ideal LCP Score for WordPress Websites?

While there’s no strict cutoff, a good LCP score is generally considered to be below 2.5 seconds. However, the ideal LCP score can vary depending on the specific website and its target audience.

How to Improve Largest Contentful Paint on WordPress?

By neglecting LCP, you risk losing valuable organic traffic and potential customers. So let’s see how you work on improving the LCP for a faster WordPress website.

Image Optimization

Image optimization is a critical aspect of improving your WordPress website’s Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). By optimizing your images, you can significantly reduce their file size without compromising quality, leading to faster loading times and a better user experience.

Here are a few key strategies:

• Choose the right image format (.webp, .avif, .jpeg, or .png).
• Compress images (use Lossy or Lossless compression). Use tools like TinyPNG, Squoosh, and ImageOptim.
• Use lazy loading, so the media loads when they are about to enter the viewport.
• Provide images in appropriate sizes for various screen resolutions.
• Use srcset and sizes attributes.

You can also use plugins like Smush and EWWW Image Optimizer.

Code Minification

This tactic involves removing unnecessary characters from code, like whitespace, comments, line breaks, and more, without affecting its functionality. It significantly reduces the file size of your website’s CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files.

For code minification, you can install WordPress plugins like Autoptimize and WP Rocket. Or you can go about manual minification with tools like UglifyJS, CSSNano, and HTML Minifier.

Server-side Rendering

Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is a technique where web pages are generated on the server and then sent to the client’s browser as fully rendered HTML. Comparing client-side rendering (CSR) with server-side rendering, in the latter, the browser renders the page using JavaScript.

While WordPress is primarily a client-side rendering framework, there are a few approaches to achieve SSR. You can use dedicated SSR frameworks like Next.js and Gatsby. Or you can opt for a plugin like WP Rocket or WP Engine.

Leverage Browser Caching

Browser caching is a technique that allows browsers to store static assets (like images, CSS, and JavaScript files) locally on the user’s device. This reduces the need to download these assets again on subsequent visits to the same website, significantly improving page load times and LCP.

When a user first visits a website, the browser requests the necessary assets from the server. Then the server sends the assets to the browser, along with instructions on how long the browser should cache them.

On subsequent visits, the browser checks if the cached assets are still valid. If so, it loads them directly from the local cache, bypassing the server, thus improving the performance.

Optimize Font Loading

This tactic can significantly impact a website’s initial load time, particularly LCP. By optimizing font loading, you can ensure that the most critical fonts load quickly, while less important fonts are deferred or loaded asynchronously.

• Choose Minimalistic Font Families: Select font families with fewer glyphs and weights to reduce file size.
• Consider Web Fonts: Use web fonts like Google Fonts or Typekit, which are often optimized for web performance.
• Load Only Essential Fonts: Identify the fonts needed for the initial page load and load them first. Load less important fonts asynchronously or when they are about to be used.
• Set the Font-display Property: Use the font-display property in CSS to control how fonts are displayed.

While there are no specific plugins solely dedicated to font optimization, the performance plugins can take care of the font loading indirectly.

Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider

A reliable WordPress hosting is crucial for achieving optimal LCP and overall website performance. A slow or unreliable host can significantly impact your website’s loading speed, negatively affecting user experience and search engine rankings.

To choose the best WordPress hosting service, consider factors like:

• Server performance
• Uptime guarantee
• Load times
• Security
• Scalability
• Storage
• Customer support

Some of the best WordPress hosting providers are Hostinger, WP Engine, WPMU DEV, Bluehost, etc.

Use Performance Optimization Plugin

Finally, you can use performance optimization plugins to improve your WordPress website’s LCP and overall performance. These plugins automate many of the technical tasks involved in optimizing your website, making it easier for you to achieve significant performance gains.

Some of the best options include WP Rocket, WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache, etc.

But remember, too many plugins can cause conflicts. So strike a balance between optimization and user experience, ensuring that your website remains fast, functional, and user-friendly.

If you still have issues with the largest contentful paint on your website, hire our professional WordPress development company. We’ll analyze your website and implement the best strategies accordingly.

Other Key Parts of the Core Web Vitals on WordPress

While LCP is a crucial metric, it’s just one part of the Core Web Vitals. Let’s delve into the other two:

First Input Delay (FID)

FID measures the time it takes for a browser to respond to a user’s first interaction with a page. This includes actions like clicking a button, tapping a link, or typing in a text box.

Why is FID Important?

A low FID score indicates a responsive and interactive website. Users expect quick responses to their actions, and a high FID can lead to frustration and a poor user experience.

How to Improve FID in WordPress?

• Minimize JavaScript execution time: Reduce the amount of JavaScript that needs to be parsed and executed.
• Optimize rendering blocking resources: Prioritize the loading of critical resources to minimize delays in page rendering.
• Reduce main thread work: Avoid long tasks that block the main thread, such as complex JavaScript calculations or large DOM manipulations.

Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS)

CLS measures the visual stability of a page. It quantifies how much page content visually shifts around during the page load. Unstable layouts can be frustrating for users, as they may accidentally click on the wrong elements or lose their place on the page.

Why is CLS Important?

A low CLS score indicates a visually stable page, leading to a better user experience. A high CLS score can negatively impact user satisfaction and conversion rates.

How to Improve CLS in WordPress?

• Fix layout shifts: Identify and fix elements that cause layout shifts, such as images without dimensions or fonts that load asynchronously.
• Use consistent font sizes and weights: Avoid sudden changes in font size or weight, which can cause layout shifts.
• Reserve space for images: Ensure that space is reserved for images before they load to prevent layout shifts.

Addressing these three core web vitals, i.e. LCP, FID, and CLS, can help significantly improve the UX of your WordPress website. If you need help with maintaining the best of these scores, opt for our WordPress website maintenance plans.

FAQs on Largest Contentful Paint on WordPress

Why is LCP Important for WordPress Websites?

A good LCP can:

• Improve User Experience: Faster loading times lead to happier users.
• Boost SEO: Google prioritizes websites with good Core Web Vitals.
• Increase Conversions: A faster website can lead to more conversions.

How Often Should I Monitor LCP?

It's recommended to monitor your website's LCP regularly, at least once a month. You can use tools like Google Search Console to track Core Web Vitals over time.

How Can I Test the Impact of LCP Improvements?

Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to measure your website's performance before and after implementing optimizations. You can also use A/B testing to compare the performance of different optimization techniques.

Conclusion

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is a crucial web performance metric that directly impacts user experience and search engine rankings. By understanding the factors that influence LCP and implementing effective optimization strategies, you can significantly enhance the performance of your WordPress website.

Implement key strategies like:

• Image Optimization: Compress images, use appropriate formats (WebP, AVIF), and implement lazy loading.
• Minification: Reduce the size of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files.
• Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Render pages on the server to improve initial load time.
• Leverage Browser Caching: Store static assets in the user’s browser to reduce load times.
• Optimize Font Loading: Prioritize critical fonts and use font display swapping.
• Choose a Reliable Hosting Provider: A fast and reliable host can significantly improve LCP.
• Use Performance Optimization Plugins: Plugins like WP Rocket and WP Super Cache can automate many optimization tasks.

So, want further help with the LCP optimization? Then connect with our WordPress professionals today!