SEO for Solos
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Chapter 13Paid

Performance

LCP under 1.8 seconds on mobile, and the five things that actually cause a content site to miss it. Inlined CSS, self-hosted fonts, modern image formats, code splitting and static-first rendering.

5 min read · updated 2026-07-26· last reviewed 2026-07-26

On a content-heavy site, a failed mobile LCP almost always traces to one of five things. Knowing the list turns performance work from an open-ended optimisation exercise into a checklist.

  1. A render-blocking stylesheet.
  2. An external font request on the critical path.
  3. An oversized image in the hero.
  4. A client-side data fetch the first paint depends on.
  5. JavaScript that has to execute before content appears.

The rest of "Performance"

985 words covering 7 sections, with the implementation code for 9 checks. The table of contents below is the full outline, so you can see exactly what is behind this.

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What this chapter covers

  • The five causes
    • The principle
  • Render-blocking CSS
    • The principle
    • The implementation
  • Fonts
    • The principle
    • The implementation
  • Images
    • The principle
    • The implementation
  • Code splitting and animation
    • The principle
    • The implementation
  • Static-first, and why it is a business requirement
    • The principle
    • Verifying it
  • Layout shift
    • The principle

Checks this chapter covers

Each one has a command you can run against your own site.