Lazy Loading Images: How to Implement It for Better SEO

Lazy loading is a technique that defers loading images until they are about to enter the viewport. This dramatically reduces initial page load time — a significant benefit for both user experience and SEO.

How Lazy Loading Works

Without lazy loading: all images on the page load immediately when the page is requested, even images below the fold that the user may never see.

With lazy loading: only images in or near the viewport load initially. Images further down the page load as the user scrolls toward them.

Lazy Loading and Core Web Vitals

How to Implement Lazy Loading

Modern browsers support native lazy loading with a single HTML attribute:

<img src="photo.jpg" alt="Description" loading="lazy" width="800" height="600">

The loading="lazy" attribute is supported by 95%+ of browsers and requires no JavaScript.

Which Images Should NEVER Be Lazy Loaded

• Hero/banner images that appear above the fold
• Logo images
• Any image visible without scrolling on initial page load
• Images in the Largest Contentful Paint area

Lazy loading your LCP image is a common mistake that dramatically worsens LCP scores. Use loading="eager" (or simply omit the loading attribute) on hero images.

WordPress Lazy Loading

WordPress has built-in lazy loading since version 5.5 — it automatically adds loading="lazy" to all images except the first image in the content area. For the hero image, some themes may still lazy load incorrectly — check your LCP score in PageSpeed Insights.