First Contentful Paint (FCP)
TL;DR
FCP is the moment the first text or image appears on screen. Good is 1.8 seconds or less at the 75th percentile; over 3 seconds is poor. It is a diagnostic, not a Core Web Vital.
Explain Simply
You open a page and stare at a blank white screen. FCP is how long that blank screen lasts before anything shows up.
First Contentful Paint measures the time from the start of navigation to when the browser renders the first piece of content from the DOM: text, an image (including a background image), an SVG or a non-white canvas. Thresholds at the 75th percentile: good ≤1.8 s, needs improvement 1.8-3 s, poor >3 s.
FCP is not one of the three Core Web Vitals, but it sits on the path to LCP: the largest element cannot paint before the first one. A slow FCP usually means a slow server response (TTFB), render-blocking CSS or JavaScript in the <head>, or web fonts that hide text while they load.
Fixes: cut server response time, inline critical CSS and defer the rest, add defer or async to scripts, use font-display: swap, and preconnect to the origins the page needs.
⚡Why It Matters
A blank screen is the first thing a visitor judges. If nothing appears for several seconds, many leave before the main content (LCP) can load at all.
🔍How CiteStat Checks
CiteStat shows the page's real-user FCP from the Chrome UX Report under the scan result, and measures lab FCP with PageSpeed Insights.
CiteStat Score Impact
Field FCP is shown, not scored. Lab FCP takes up to 2 points from the Performance category.
Fix Difficulty
Editor: N/A | Developer: Medium | AI Agent: Medium