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

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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