FCPFirst Contentful Paint
The time between a tap on your link and the moment the browser shows the first text or image of your page.
Why it counts: it is the first reason a visitor leaves a website.
The 2-KPI Method
Two KPIs rule them all.
Two KPIs rule them all.
FCP and SoLV.
What First Contentful Paint and Share of Local Visibility measure, why they decide who books, and how we move both.
500+ locations helped
The two numbers
Two numbers stand between a search and a booked patient.
Before a patient can book, two things have to happen. They have to find your practice in Google's local results, and the page they tap has to show up. SoLV measures the first, FCP measures the second, and a slow first paint holds back every other form of digital marketing you pay for.
SoLVShare of Local Visibility
How often your Google Business listing is found in the top 3 of Google's local results, measured across the area you serve.
How it is scored: the share of scan pins where your listing holds a top-3 spot.
KPI 1 · First Contentful Paint
A tap on a result, then a white screen.
A patient searches, picks a practice from the local list and taps. Then the wait begins. First Contentful Paint is the length of that wait: the time until the browser paints the first text or image of the page. Until it does, the patient sees nothing, and nothing on the page can persuade them to stay.
1sFirst second
The link has been tapped and the screen is white. No practice name, no photo, no phone number yet.
Painted so far: nothing
3sBy the third second
Still white. The rest of the local list is one tap back, and nothing here has given the patient a reason to stay.
Painted so far: nothing
7.8sA slow competitor site we measured
On one slow competitor site we measured, the first content appeared 7.8 seconds after the tap. One site, not a typical or average one.
Painted at last: the first text or image
FCP = bounce rate
Each extra second raises the bounce rate.
A bounce is a visitor who leaves from the page they landed on without going any further. Our shorthand is FCP = bounce rate: the slower the first paint, the more visitors bounce, and the ladder shows by how much.
FCP = bounce rate
Added bounce rate at each First Contentful Paint time.
85% of traffic globally is from a mobile device.
That makes mobile FCP the most important KPI when the aim is to turn traffic into transactions.
What good looks like
Google's marks, and where our sites land.
Google publishes marks for First Contentful Paint: 1.8 seconds or less is good, and more than 3.0 seconds is poor. We check FCP with Google PageSpeed Insights before we touch a site and again after. The sites we build on SGEN CMS, our own platform, paint in 0.9 seconds on desktop.
A slow competitor site we measured
Poor
One site we measured, not a typical or average site.
7.8sFirst Contentful Paint
Google's mark for a poor FCPOver 3.0s
A site we build on SGEN CMS
Good
Our own website platform, read on desktop.
0.9sdesktop
Google's mark for a good FCP1.8s or less
What the rebuild changes
Your site moves onto SGEN CMS, the platform we built ourselves: Web Plus on Marketing Plus, Web Pro on Marketing Pro. Then we measure its first paint again.
KPI 2 · Share of Local Visibility
One Local Radius Scan, three measures.
SoLV is how often your Google Business listing is found in the top 3 on Google. A Local Radius Scan shows how your location is represented to Google searchers depending on where they search from. It sets a grid of pins over your area, runs the selected key phrase from each pin and records the rank your listing holds there.
SoLVShare of Local Visibility
The percentage of the scan's pins where your listing is in the top 3 for the selected key phrase.
The main number. Higher is better.
ARPAverage Rank Position
The average rank across the pins that show anything other than 20+. It tells you how high you sit at the pins where the scan finds you inside the top 20.
Rank 1 is the top spot. Lower is better.
ATRPAverage Total Rank Position
The average across every pin on the scan, the 20+ pins included. It shows how you rank across the whole area.
Counts every pin. Lower is better.
Why the top three
Below third place, the clicks dry up.
Clicks in Google's local results are not shared evenly. The first three positions take 18%, 15% and 13% of clicks, and positions 4 to 100 get under 1%. So SoLV counts only your top-3 pins.
Data for local discovery
Click share at each position in Google's local results.
18%Position 1
15%Position 2
13%Position 3
<1%Position 4 to 100
Third place still earns 13%. Fourth place and below earn under 1%.
99,000Google local searches per second
84% are discovery search terms: a search for the care, such as "eye exam" or "urgent care near me", not for a practice's name. That searcher has not chosen anyone yet, so the top three decide who they meet first.
A scan, before and after
What a rising SoLV looks like on the map.
Each pin is one search point, and its number is the rank your listing holds there. Pins showing 1 to 3 count toward SoLV. Amber and red pins sit outside the top 3. The pair below is a drawn illustration of a market before and after the work, not a scan of a client.
Before MediMarketing
Invisible
Scanning: "dentist near me"
14
11
9
16
12
18
7
10
13
15
8
12
2
9
17
20
11
6
14
19
13
3
9
15
11
the top 3
After MediMarketing
Top-3
Scanning: "dentist near me"
2
1
3
2
4
1
2
1
3
2
3
1
1
2
4
2
3
2
1
4
5
2
4
1
5
the top 3
The audit
Your two numbers, read for free.
The free audit is a Local Radius Scan of your market and a First Contentful Paint check on your site. It looks at three things.
The phrases patients use, and where you rank
The top key phrases for your kind of care in your market, the share of search volume each one carries, and where you rank for each. Drawn from Google Trends and a Local Visibility Report.
Your SoLV, ARP and ATRP
A Local Radius Scan of your market for those key phrases, with all three measures and the pins where your listing sits outside the top 3.
Your First Contentful Paint
A First Contentful Paint check on your site and a mobile page-speed report from Google PageSpeed Insights, set against Google's marks.
The audit is free. It shows where both numbers stand for your practice today.
The loop
Between monthly reports, the work keeps going.
Monthly reporting shows where both numbers stand. In between, the work runs as a loop of four steps: measure, diagnose, optimize, re-measure. Each pass ends with a fresh reading, so the next report shows what moved.
In the loop
FCP + SoLV
Two numbers, read again on every pass.
Take a fresh reading
First Contentful Paint from a page-speed test, Share of Local Visibility from a Local Radius Scan.
Local Radius ScanFind what holds them back
What delays the first paint, and the pins where your listing sits outside the top 3.
AI SEO Website OptimizerMake the change
Site work on SGEN CMS and SEO for the key phrases that matter. With the Google Ads add-on on Pro, paid search as well.
AI Google Ads Optimizer · ProCheck that it moved
Test the page and scan the map again. A number that moved shows in the next report, and the loop starts over.
Monthly reportingGoogle Ads work, with the AI Google Ads Optimizer, comes with the Google Ads add-on, which is Marketing Pro only. Marketing Plus runs the loop on the site and local search.
The guarantees
Three guarantees, built on two numbers.
The guarantees speak the language of the method. Two of them point straight at these numbers.
SoLV Top-3 GuaranteedNamed after KPI 2: a top-3 place in Google's local results, the spot SoLV measures.
New Patients GuaranteedThe result both numbers lead to: a patient who sees you in the local top 3, taps, and gets a page that paints.
Both numbers are reported every month, so you can see the method at work.
Three guarantees on one method.
New Patients Guaranteed
SoLV Top-3 Guaranteed
We Guarantee Booked Appointments
It starts with a free audit: Book an Audit.
The method by specialty
Eight specialties, the same two numbers.
Each specialty page shows the searches its patients make and how FCP and SoLV apply to them. Pick yours.
eye exam
Optometry
For eye care practices
Read the optometry page →
emergency dentist
Dental
For general and specialist dentistry
Read the dental page →
laser hair removal
Med Spa
For aesthetic clinics
Read the med spa page →
back pain relief
Chiropractic
For chiropractic clinics
Read the chiropractic page →
emergency vet
Vet Clinic
For animal hospitals and clinics
Read the vet clinic page →
pain clinic near me
Pain Management
For pain medicine practices
Read the pain management page →
sports injury rehab
Physical Therapy
For PT and rehab clinics
Read the physical therapy page →
walk-in clinic
Urgent Care
For urgent care centers
Read the urgent care page →
The hub
Industries
All eight specialties in one place
Browse the industries →
Method FAQ
What owners ask about the two numbers.
Google's marks are 1.8 seconds or less for a good FCP and more than 3.0 seconds for a poor one. The sites we build on SGEN CMS paint in 0.9 seconds on desktop. One slow competitor site we measured took 7.8 seconds.
We check both. 85% of traffic globally is from a mobile device, which makes mobile FCP the most important KPI when the goal is turning traffic into transactions. That is why the audit includes a mobile page-speed report. The 0.9 seconds we quote for our sites is the desktop reading.
A scan that shows how your location is represented to Google searchers depending on where they search from. It sets a grid of pins across your area, runs your key phrase from each one and records your listing's rank at every pin. SoLV, ARP and ATRP are all worked out from those pins.
SoLV is the percentage of pins where your listing is in the top 3 for the selected key phrase. ARP, Average Rank Position, is the average of the pins showing anything other than 20+. ATRP, Average Total Rank Position, is the average of all pins. SoLV tells you how much of the area puts you in the top 3, and the two averages show where you rank across it.
Marketing Plus includes monthly reporting. Marketing Pro includes monthly and quarterly advanced reporting and attribution. Between reports, the loop keeps measuring, fixing and measuring again, so each report shows how far both numbers moved.
Because that is where the clicks are. In Google's local results, position 1 gets 18% of clicks, position 2 gets 15% and position 3 gets 13%. Positions 4 to 100 get under 1%. A pin where you rank fourth looks close on the map, but it brings in very few clicks.
Free audit
Find out where your two numbers stand.
Book a free audit. We scan your market, check your site's First Contentful Paint and show you what both numbers mean for new patients.
Backed by the New Patients Guarantee