BeginThings
Core Web Vitals 2026: the image problem hurting your rankings
In 2026 Google tightened its Core Web Vitals thresholds, and the message to site owners was blunt: fast pages win. The metric that trips up the most sites is Largest Contentful Paint, and the biggest single cause is almost always the same thing, oversized images.
The numbers that matter
A "good" LCP is 2.5 seconds or less. Most sites blow past that because they upload full-resolution photos straight from a camera or stock library, landing 3 to 5 megabyte files on a page that should weigh a fraction of that. Speed is not vanity: one retailer measured a 53% jump in revenue per visitor from good LCP scores.
Two fixes, both free
First, compress. Most images can shed 60 to 80% of their weight with no visible loss using the image compressor. Second, convert. Modern formats like WebP are far smaller than PNG or JPG at the same quality; the image format converter switches them in your browser.
Do it privately
Both tools run client-side, so your images are never uploaded to a server. You get smaller files, faster pages and better Core Web Vitals without handing your photos to anyone.
Speed up your site free
Compress and convert images in your browser, no upload. Open the image compressor →
Frequently asked questions
What is a good LCP score?
Largest Contentful Paint of 2.5 seconds or less is considered good. Between 2.5 and 4 seconds needs improvement, and over 4 seconds is poor.
Should I use WebP or AVIF?
Both are far smaller than JPG or PNG. WebP has the widest support and is a safe default; AVIF can be even smaller where supported.
How do I compress images without losing quality?
Use a tool that reduces file size while keeping visual quality. The BeginThings image compressor does this in your browser with no upload.