Google Noticed Lazy-loading Only The Images Below The Fold Results In Better Performance On WordPress Sites

Tests show that overuse of lazy loading can negatively affect performance. According to the most recent data in HTTP Archive, native image lazy-loading is used by 17% of websites and adoption is growing rapidly. 84% of sites that use native image lazy-loading use WordPress, 2% use another CMS, and the remaining 14% don’t use a known CMS.

The team at Google noticed that Lazy-loading only the images below the fold results in a complete reversal of the LCP regression and possibly even a slight improvement over disabling LCP entirely. They will also be submitting a patch to WordPress core to implement the experimental fix.