First Contentful Paint (FCP)

Website speed is one of the most important factors for search engine optimization. A good first contentful paint is one of the measurement tools in this. What is first contentful paint and how important is it with respect to SEO? On this page, I am happy to explain this to you.

What is first contentful paint?

First contentful paint is a term used to indicate how long it takes for a contentful element on the page to fully load. First contentful paint is abbreviated FCP and is an interesting factor in measuring Web site speed.(1)

The workings of FCP

When a user opens a Web page on a Web site, the Web site loads all the components piece by piece. How many milliseconds does it take to display the first element on the website? This indicates the first contentful paint. An example of an element is a piece of text or an image. This FCP measurement indicates how much time it takes to show a visitor information.

The FCP not only says something about the speed of a page, but is also an indicator to measure the usability of a Web site. The faster a first element loads, the more likely a user is to stay on the website. Speed is a very important factor within search engine optimization.

The impact of first contentful paint on SEO

The first contentful paint may have an impact on the SEO of a website or page, but it is mainly an indication that is part of a bigger picture. So with only knowing the FCP, you will not be able to optimize the website for the search engine. The

My advice

It is always important to keep checking how fast your website is. A slow website produces far fewer conversions! And to avoid this, it is advisable to check and optimize the speed of your website.

I recommend measuring both the first contentful paint and the time to first byte: from this you may draw interesting conclusions. Website speed is also about other things, such as the quality of images and other content on a page.(2)

The most complete book on website speed

I’ve written so much about speeding up websites and everything involved that I like to divide it into different sections; general, tools, speed improvement points and tips. Feel free to see and consult all the links below to learn more about tools and tips for speeding up your website.

General

• What is the website speed
• Website speed: The division between marketing and development
• The influence of SEO on UX
• The influence of web design on SEO
• SPAs and SEO
• What are the Google Core Web Vitals?

Tools

• Autoptimize
• Pagespeed.Compare
• W3 Total Cache
• Tools Pingdom
• Google Pagespeed Insights
• GTMetrix

Verbter points for speed

• Time To First Byte (TTFB).
• Time To Interactive (TTI).
• Image for Largest view with content (LCP) preloaded
• Enable text compression
• Reduce the CSS
• Total Blocking Time (TBT).
• Speed Index
• Reduce JavaScript
• Largest Contentful Paint
• Avoid an overly large DOM
• Delete unused CSS
• Remove unused JavaScript
• Deliver images in modern layouts
• Connect in advance to required origins
• Preventing obsolete JavaScript from being delivered to modern browsers
• Use an efficient cache policy for static items
• Remove duplicate modules from JavaScript
• Avoid multiple redirects
• Encode images efficiently
• Use lazy loading
• Load important requests in advance

General tips

• Tips for quickly loading a video
• Using Edge SEO for a faster website
• Installing a Content Delivery Network for SEO
• Optimizing images for SEO
• The influence of hosting on SEO