The Metric Google Actually Cares About

FCP is the handshake. LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is the conversation.

This is arguably the most important metric for SEO right now because it represents perceived load speed.

What exactly is LCP?

Largest Contentful Paint measures the render time of the largest image or text block visible within the viewport, relative to when the page first started loading.

In simple terms: it tells Google (and your users) when the main content of the page has likely finished loading and become useful.

Google uses this as a key signal in Core Web Vitals, which directly influences search rankings.

The Real-World Analogy

Imagine you're at a restaurant and you've already been seated (that's FCP — the page has started loading).

• Fast LCP: Your food arrives hot and quickly. You're satisfied and enjoy the experience.
• Slow LCP: You're sitting at the table, menu in hand, but waiting 40 minutes for your meal to arrive. Frustration builds.

No matter how fast the initial page load feels, if the main content (your "meal") takes too long, the whole experience feels slow.

The Common Mistake Most Developers Make

Trying to optimize initial load by lazy loading the hero image.

This is well-intentioned — you want to save bandwidth and load smaller assets first.

But here's the problem: the hero image is often the largest contentful element on the page.

By lazy loading it, you're explicitly telling the browser:
"Please load the most important visual element last."

Result? Terrible LCP scores, frustrated users, and lower SEO rankings.

The Simple Fix in Next.js

Use the built-in priority prop on your hero <Image> component.

This tells the browser to preemptively fetch and prioritize that image — treating it as a high-priority resource (LCP candidate).

import Image from "next/image";

<Image
  src="/hero-image.jpg"
  alt="Descriptive alt text for accessibility and SEO"
  fill // or width/height depending on your layout
  priority // ← This single prop fixes LCP for hero images
  className="object-cover"
/>;

That's it. No extra packages, no complex logic.

The browser now loads your hero image early, dramatically improving LCP.

Final Thoughts

Don't make your users wait for the main course.

A sub-2.5 second LCP is the goal for good Core Web Vitals scoring (according to Google).

Prioritizing your hero assets is one of the highest-impact, lowest-effort wins you can make.

Fix this today — your users (and Google) will thank you.