What is LCP by server distance
LCP by server distance shows the Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) based on how far the user is from the server that served the page. This lens helps you understand the impact of geographic distance and network latency on your site’s load performance.
Distance is typically inferred based on the user’s location vs. the origin or edge server used during the request. Only distance categories with recorded traffic will appear in the view.
Longer distances generally mean more network hops, higher Time to First Byte (TTFB), and increased chances of instability - all of which can lead to slower LCP.
LCP is the most popular vital from the Core Web Vitals and represents the loading time of the largest element on the page.
Healthy LCP by server distance sample
Should you worry
A healthy LCP by server distance view shows minimal drop-off in performance across distances. This usually means your CDN is doing its job — serving content from locations close to your users, regardless of where they are globally.
If LCP remains green across Low, Mid, and High distances, you're in good shape.
Unhealthy LCP by server distance sample
If the chart shows significantly slower LCP for users farther from your servers, it’s often a sign of:
Poor CDN configuration or cache misses.
No edge serving for dynamic content.
Large payloads or uncompressed assets being sent over high-latency connections.
Redirects or routing inefficiencies.
This is especially problematic for global audiences, where users in Asia, South America, or remote regions might experience degraded performance if edge strategies aren’t in place.
Resolving unhealthy LCP by server distance
Go-to action plan to resolve an unhealthy LCP by server distance:
Ask Uxi to analyze your LCP by server distance values and suggest improvements.
Use Filters to focus on the slow device in your LCP by server distance, then look across the other LCP lenses to find which ones show the slowest LCPs with the most pageviews.
Simulate LCP of the suspected lens to see if fixing it will resolve the slow LCP by server distance. If yes, this is where the resolution focus should be.
Use an automated LCP optimization tool like Navigation AI to improve your LCP by server distance values.
Once you’ve improved LCP, set an alert to be the first to know if it starts worsening again.
Try it yourself
Discover how your website performs with real user data.