Your Website's Video Is Probably Killing Your LCP. Here's a Checklist
A full-width hero video looks great in the design file. In production, it's often the heaviest thing on the page, and it quietly drags down your performance score. This is a checklist I use whenever video shows up in a frontend project. Each item is small, but together they make a big difference. First, measure Before changing anything, find out whether video is actually your problem: Run…
A company's website performance may suffer due to a full-width hero video occupying the largest file size, slowing down the LCP (Largest Contentful Paint). To improve performance, follow this checklist. Begin by measuring the video's impact on performance using tools like Lighthouse or PageSpeed Insights in Chrome DevTools. If the video poster or frame is the LCP element, or the video request hinders critical resources on a slow connection, proceed with the checklist.
Start by compressing the video source file to make it lighter. Use FFmpeg with settings such as -crf 26 for a web-friendly quality level. Alternatively, online tools like VideoBee can also compress videos. Next, adjust the video resolution to match its displayed size. For a background video behind a headline, 720p is usually sufficient.
Remove the audio track using -an if it isn't needed, as this reduces file size. Trim the video to a 6-10 second loop. Offer modern formats like WebM (VP9) and AV1 alongside MP4 for universal compatibility. Place a poster image using FFmpeg to show while the video loads. Set the preload attribute to control how aggressively the browser fetches the video: none, metadata, or auto.
Lazy-load videos below the fold using IntersectionObserver. Ensure the server supports range requests and caching, and consider using a CDN for better user performance. Use -movflags +faststart to allow playback to start before the file downloads completely. For non-critical videos, avoid autoplay. Respect user preferences for reduced motion or data savings.
Before and after applying these optimizations, measure the video file size, LCP, and total page weight for comparison. Implementing these steps can significantly improve website performance.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
