performance-and-web-vitals

Performance and Web Vitals

Run a Lighthouse Audit

# CLI audit — outputs JSON and HTML report
npx lighthouse https://example.com --output html --output-path ./lighthouse-report.html

# Headless, useful in CI
npx lighthouse https://example.com --chrome-flags="--headless" --output json --output-path ./report.json

# Audit specific categories only
npx lighthouse https://example.com --only-categories=performance,accessibility,seo

Or open Chrome DevTools → Lighthouse tab → Analyse page load.

Target scores: | Category | Target | |---|---| | Performance | ≥ 90 | | Accessibility | 100 | | Best Practices | ≥ 95 | | SEO | ≥ 95 |

Core Web Vitals

LCP — Largest Contentful Paint

How fast does the main content appear?

Target: ≤ 2.5s

LCP measures when the largest visible element (hero image, heading, video poster) renders. It is the user's perception of "did the page load?"

Common causes and fixes:

| Cause | Fix | |---|---| | Unoptimised hero image | Use WebP/AVIF, correct size, fetchpriority="high" | | Image not preloaded | <link rel="preload" as="image" href="hero.webp"> | | Render-blocking CSS/JS | Defer non-critical JS, inline critical CSS | | Slow server response | CDN, caching headers, edge delivery | | Web font blocking render | font-display: swap or optional |

<!-- Preload LCP image -->
<link rel="preload" as="image" href="hero.webp" fetchpriority="high">

<!-- LCP image: no lazy loading -->
<img src="hero.webp" alt="..." fetchpriority="high" width="1200" height="600">

Never use loading="lazy" on the LCP image — it delays the most important render.

CLS — Cumulative Layout Shift

Does content jump around while loading?

Target: ≤ 0.1

CLS measures unexpected layout shifts — content moving after it has rendered. Caused by images without dimensions, late-loading ads, fonts swapping, or dynamic content injected above existing content.

Common causes and fixes:

| Cause | Fix | |---|---| | Images without width/height | Always set width and height on <img> | | Web font swap | Use font-display: optional or preload fonts | | Dynamic content above fold | Reserve space with min-height on containers | | Late-loading ads or embeds | Reserve fixed dimensions for ad slots | | Animations that shift layout | Animate transform only, never top/left/width/height |

<!-- Always include dimensions -->
<img src="product.jpg" width="400" height="300" alt="...">

/* Reserve space for dynamic content */
.ad-slot { min-height: 250px; }

/* Animate transform, not layout properties */
.slide-in { transform: translateY(0); transition: transform 300ms; }

INP — Interaction to Next Paint

How quickly does the page respond to user input?

Target: ≤ 200ms

INP measures the delay between a user interaction (click, tap, keyboard) and the next visual update. High INP makes the UI feel sluggish or frozen.

Common causes and fixes:

| Cause | Fix | |---|---| | Heavy JS on main thread | Break into smaller tasks, use requestIdleCallback | | Large event handlers | Debounce/throttle scroll and resize handlers | | Synchronous DOM updates | Batch DOM writes with requestAnimationFrame | | Third-party scripts blocking | Load third-party scripts with async or defer | | React re-renders | Memoize with useMemo, useCallback, React.memo |

Images

Images are the single biggest performance lever on most pages.

<!-- Modern formats with fallback -->
<picture>
  <source srcset="image.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" width="800" height="600" alt="..." loading="lazy">
</picture>

<!-- Responsive images -->
<img
  srcset="image-400.webp 400w, image-800.webp 800w, image-1200.webp 1200w"
  sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 50vw"
  src="image-800.webp"
  alt="..."
  width="800"
  height="600"
  loading="lazy"
>

Rules:

• Always set width and height — prevents CLS
• Use loading="lazy" below the fold, never on LCP image
• Serve WebP or AVIF — typically 30–50% smaller than JPEG
• Size images to their display size — do not serve 2000px image for a 400px slot
• Use a CDN with automatic format conversion where possible

Fonts

Web fonts block rendering if not handled correctly.

<!-- Preconnect to font origin -->
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
<link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>

<!-- Preload critical font file -->
<link rel="preload" href="/fonts/brand.woff2" as="font" type="font/woff2" crossorigin>

@font-face {
  font-family: 'Brand';
  src: url('/fonts/brand.woff2') format('woff2');
  font-display: swap;     /* show fallback immediately, swap when loaded */
  /* font-display: optional; — never swap, use fallback if not cached */
}

• font-display: swap — good for headings, acceptable CLS
• font-display: optional — zero CLS, font only used if cached (best for body text)
• Subset fonts to the characters actually used — reduces file size by 60–80%

JavaScript

<!-- Defer non-critical scripts -->
<script src="analytics.js" defer></script>
<script src="chat-widget.js" async></script>

<!-- Module scripts are deferred by default -->
<script type="module" src="app.js"></script>

• defer: executes after HTML parsed, in order — use for most scripts
• async: executes as soon as downloaded, out of order — use for independent scripts (analytics)
• Never block the main thread with synchronous <script> in <head>

Lighthouse CI (automated audits)

Run Lighthouse in CI to catch regressions before deployment.

# Install
npm install -g @lhci/cli

# Run
lhci autorun --upload.target=temporary-public-storage

# .lighthouserc.json
{
  "ci": {
    "assert": {
      "assertions": {
        "categories:performance": ["warn", { "minScore": 0.9 }],
        "categories:accessibility": ["error", { "minScore": 1.0 }],
        "categories:seo": ["warn", { "minScore": 0.95 }]
      }
    }
  }
}

Review Checklist

• [ ] Lighthouse performance score ≥ 90
• [ ] Lighthouse accessibility score = 100
• [ ] LCP ≤ 2.5s — LCP image preloaded, no loading="lazy" on it
• [ ] CLS ≤ 0.1 — all images have width and height, no layout-shifting animations
• [ ] INP ≤ 200ms — no heavy synchronous JS on main thread
• [ ] Images served as WebP or AVIF with correct dimensions
• [ ] loading="lazy" on all below-fold images
• [ ] Web fonts use font-display: swap or optional
• [ ] Non-critical JS loaded with defer or async
• [ ] Lighthouse CI configured to catch regressions in deployment pipeline