How Images Affect Core Web Vitals & SEO

Published: March 2025 • 5 min read

What Are Core Web Vitals

Core Web Vitals are Google metrics that measure user experience: LCP (loading speed), FID/INP (interactivity), and CLS (visual stability). Images directly affect LCP and CLS.

How Images Hurt LCP

The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) is often an image. If your hero image is 3MB, LCP will be slow. Target: hero images under 200KB using Image Compressor.

How Images Cause CLS

Images without width and height attributes cause layout shifts as they load. Always specify dimensions in your HTML, and use our Image Resizer to set exact sizes.