What is PLS by shopping cart
PLS by LCP compares Perceived Load Speed (PLS) across different Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) performance levels — Good, Needs Improvement, and Poor — based on real user experiences. It helps you understand how the timing of the largest element’s load correlates with how fast users feel the page loads overall.
PLS (Perceived Load Speed) is Uxify’s proprietary user-centric metric that measures when the page appears visually complete from a real user’s perspective. LCP, part of Google’s Core Web Vitals, measures how quickly the largest visible element on the page loads.
While LCP focuses on a single element, PLS considers the collective loading of all meaningful visual content. By comparing the two, you can determine how much of the perceived slowness stems from delays in that key element — or whether it’s broader layout and content issues.
When LCP is poor, PLS is almost always poor too. But when LCP is decent and PLS is still slow, there may be hidden visual delays not captured by LCP alone.
Healthy PLS by LCP sample
Should you worry
A healthy distribution shows good LCP values aligning with fast PLS. This means your largest element and the full visible page load together seamlessly — reinforcing a smooth and fast experience for users.
Unhealthy PLS by LCP sample
If you see a high number of pageviews with decent LCP but still poor PLS, your users may be waiting on other visual content after the largest element loads. This can result in layout jank, skeletons that take too long to fill in, or secondary elements appearing too late.
On the other hand, if both LCP and PLS are poor — that’s a clear indicator that the entire visual loading experience needs urgent improvement.
When PLS remains poor even after the largest element is loaded (i.e., when LCP is in the good or needs-improvement range), it suggests incomplete perceived loading and possibly misaligned rendering sequences or blocking elements. This causes a mismatch between technical load milestones and user experience.
Resolving unhealthy PLS by LCP
Go-to action plan to resolve an unhealthy PLS by LCP:
Ask Uxi to analyze your PLS by LCP and suggest improvements.
Use Filters to isolate pageviews where LCP is green but PLS is yellow or red.
Simulate LCP of the suspected lens to see if fixing it will resolve the PLS by LCP. If yes, this is where the resolution focus should be.
Use an automated optimization tool like Navigation AI to improve your PLS by LCP.
Once you’ve improved PLS, set an alert to be the first to know if it starts worsening again.
Try it yourself
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