FetchPriority Featured Image is a self-learning LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) optimizer. Instead of guessing which image is your hero like every other plugin, it measures the real LCP element from your actual visitors (via the browser’s PerformanceObserver), learns it per template, and then automatically applies fetchpriority="high" plus a <link rel="preload"> to that exact image — whether it’s a normal <img> or a CSS background-image. It self-corrects as your design and content change, with zero configuration.

What makes it different

Self-learning real LCP — no competitor in this space measures field LCP from real users and auto-targets it. Most plugins blindly prioritize the featured image and hope it’s the hero.
CSS background-image preload — hero sliders and background heroes are a blind spot for most performance plugins; this preloads them.
Visual LCP picker — click your hero element on the front end to lock it in as a manual override per template.
Built-in Core Web Vitals before/after report — pulls real-world LCP, INP, and CLS from the Chrome UX Report so you can prove the impact.
Per-template control — Auto / Learned-only / Manual-only / Off for every template the plugin sees.

Key Features

Self-learning LCP detection from real-user field data (PerformanceObserver beacon), aggregated per template
Visual click-to-pick LCP element on the front end (admin-bar “Pick LCP element”)
Core Web Vitals before/after report via the Chrome UX Report (CrUX) API
Dashboard widget — run the Core Web Vitals report and PageSpeed audit straight from the WordPress dashboard
One-click PageSpeed Insights (Lighthouse) audit from the admin, showing the score, LCP, page weight, image-saving opportunities, and Google’s own detected LCP element
Oversized-LCP detection — warns when your hero image is larger than it displays, with a recommended width
Slowest-templates leaderboard built from real-user LCP timing
loading="eager" on the LCP image and loading="lazy" below the fold so native lazy-loading never delays the hero
Preloads + prioritizes the measured LCP, including CSS background-image, video poster, and <picture> heroes
Text-LCP web-font preload — when the largest element is a heading or paragraph, learns the web font it used (self-hosted or Google Fonts) and preloads it
Cross-origin CDN preconnect — opens an early connection to the exact host serving your hero image or font, with a dns-prefetch fallback
WooCommerce — prioritizes the main image in the single-product gallery (shop and product-category pages are covered by the archive rules)
Settings import/export to move one tuned configuration across sites, plus a reset-to-defaults button
WP-CLI commands: wp fpfi lcp list, wp fpfi lcp reset, and wp fpfi settings-export/import/reset
Translation-ready — ships a full .pot template for localisation into any language
Per-template modes: Auto, Learned-only, Manual-only, Off
Tabbed settings screen (Smart LCP / Targeting / Preload / Diagnostics) with a clean, flat interface
Automatically adds fetchpriority="high" to the hero / featured image
Optional fetchpriority="low" for below-fold images — paired complement that tells the browser to defer non-critical loads
<link rel="preload" as="image"> for the hero featured image on singular pages — strongest LCP signal
AVIF / WebP detection — when a sibling .avif / .webp file exists on disk, an extra <link rel="preload" type="image/avif|image/webp"> is emitted so the browser picks the supported modern format automatically (works with ShortPixel, Imagify, Optimole, and similar)
Theme presets — auto-detects Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, Divi, and Hello Elementor and excludes their site-logo / header-image classes so the priority budget is spent on the real hero
Avatar / Gravatar exclusion — never tags images with class avatar / gravatar or hosted on gravatar.com
Settings page (Settings FetchPriority) for per-context toggles, first-N control, preload, and exclusions
Admin-bar debug badge showing how many images were tagged on the current page (total + how many got high)
Compatible with most WordPress themes including Divi, Elementor, Astra, GeneratePress, Kadence, and any theme using standard the_post_thumbnail() / wp_get_attachment_image()

Why Use FetchPriority?

The fetchpriority attribute is a modern web standard that tells browsers which images should be prioritized during page load. By marking featured images as high priority, you can improve:

Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) scores
User experience with faster loading of important images
Overall page performance

Developer-Friendly

The plugin uses WordPress’s native filters and doesn’t modify your database or image files.