FCP
First Contentful Paint
Time until the first text or image is painted on screen.
- Good: ≤ 0.9s
- Needs improvement: ≤ 1.6s
- Poor: > 1.6s
The browser waits for the first bytesFirst text appears: that's FCPThen the rest of the content
What is FCP?
First Contentful Paint (FCP) measures the time from page navigation until any text, image, non-white canvas, or SVG is first rendered. It marks the first moment the user sees any visual feedback that the page is loading.
What problem does it solve?
FCP tells you how quickly users get reassurance that something is happening. A blank white screen for more than ~1 second creates anxiety and increases bounce rate, even if the rest of the page loads quickly.
What is a good FCP score?
s
Good
Exceptional — content appears almost instantly.
How to improve FCP
FCP is governed by how quickly the browser can receive and render the critical path.
01
Server response (TTFB)
FCP cannot begin until the browser receives HTML. A slow TTFB directly delays the first paint.
Fix Fix TTFB first. Page caching and a CDN are the highest-leverage improvements.
02
Render-blocking resources
CSS files in the document head block rendering until fully parsed. Synchronous script tags do the same.
Fix Inline critical CSS. Load non-critical CSS asynchronously. Move scripts to end of body or add defer or async attributes.
03
Resource download size
Large CSS or font files take longer to download before the first paint can happen.
Fix Minimise and compress CSS. Preload critical fonts. Serve assets from a CDN edge node close to the user.
Need help fixing your FCP?
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