Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)
01 Definition
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) meaning: LCP measures how long the largest visible element takes to render on screen.
Largest Contentful Paint is a Core Web Vitals metric from Google that records when the largest image or text block in the viewport finishes rendering. It reflects perceived load speed. Google considers 2.5 seconds or less at the 75th percentile a good LCP score.
Why it matters
How Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) fits the work
LCP is one of Google's Core Web Vitals and part of its page experience signals, so a fast largest paint supports a smoother perceived load.
In context
A page's LCP dropped from 4.1 seconds to 2.2 seconds after the team compressed and preloaded the hero image, moving it into the good range.
Practical note
Optimize the hero image or main text block, since that is usually the LCP element. Field data at the 75th percentile matters more than a single lab test.