How to Improve First Contentful Paint (FCP)

Speed up First Contentful Paint (FCP) by optimizing critical rendering path, eliminating render-blocking resources, and prioritizing above-the-fold content.

fcpperformancecritical-css

What is FCP?

First Contentful Paint (FCP) measures the time from when the page starts loading to when any part of the page's content is rendered on screen. This could be text, an image, SVG, or canvas element.

Steps to Improve FCP

1

Eliminate Render-Blocking Resources

Defer non-critical CSS and JavaScript. Inline critical CSS directly in the HTML head.

2

Minify CSS and JavaScript

Remove whitespace, comments, and unused code to reduce file sizes.

3

Preconnect to Required Origins

Use <link rel='preconnect'> for third-party domains you'll need early.

4

Use Text Compression

Enable Gzip or Brotli compression for text-based resources.

Frequently Asked Questions

A good FCP is under 1.8 seconds. Scores between 1.8-3 seconds need improvement, and over 3 seconds is poor.
FCP measures when any content appears on screen, while LCP measures when the largest content element renders. FCP usually happens before LCP.

Ready to audit your website?

Get instant performance, SEO, and accessibility scores for your website.