First Contentful Paint

First Contentful Paint marks the first time the browser renders something — anything — from the DOM that isn’t a blank background. Often that’s the navigation, the page background, or the first paragraph of body text. Anything under 1.8 seconds is considered good.

FCP is the metric users notice without knowing they’re noticing. A site that hits a fast FCP feels responsive even if LCP arrives later, because the user has visual feedback that the click registered. A slow FCP feels like a cold start.

The usual fixes are server-side rendering (so the browser parses HTML without waiting for JavaScript), removing render-blocking stylesheets, and using `font-display: swap` so missing fonts don’t hold up the first paint.