As a website owner, maximizing your site’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO), accessibility, and performance is of utmost importance. However, to address these factors as efficiently as possible, care must be taken to use the right tools and techniques. One of the most innovative solutions today is that you can take advantage of what is called Google Lighthouse.
In this article, we will introduce you to Google Lighthouse and how it works. Then we will explain how you can use it to improve your website.
Know What is Google Lighthouse
Lighthouse is an automated open source tool to improve the quality of web pages. Lighthouse is used as a measurement and auditing tool for website quality performance, accessibility, progressive web applications, and more.
Who is Suitable to Use Google Lighthouse?
Lighthouse Tools aren’t just for developers. This tool is suitable for any site owner who is interested in learning more about website performance and the concrete steps to run it.
There are several different ways to use this tool. You can run it via:
- Chrome Developer Tools
- Chrome Extension
- A Node module
- Web User Interface (UI)
Important note, Lighthouse is currently mainly focuses on Progressive Web App features, such as Add to Homescreen and offline support. However, the underlying goal of this project is to provide an audit of all aspects of web application quality.
The main focus of the Lighthouse audit is Google Core Web Data. If you’re not familiar, this is an important metric that Google uses to measure web page speed and overall User Experience (UX). They consist of:
- FID = First Input Delay.
- CLS = Cumulative Layout Shift, and
- LCP = Largest Contentful Paint.
In other words, using Lighthouse helps you view your website the same way Google does. You can use the actionable insights it provides to optimize your pages for better search engine ranking results.
The Lighthouse report is divided into five categories:
- Performance
- Accessibility
- SEO
- Best Practice
- Progressive web app
Lighthouse also uses a 1 to 100 rating system and tests simulated 3G connection sites. However, scores may vary from time to time as Google updates its ranking criteria frequently. Therefore, you can still keep up with any Lighthouse updates.
Moreover, although it is somewhat similar to PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse is not the same. Lighthouse offers a more holistic picture than just page performance (as does PageSpeed Insights)
How to Use Google Lighthouse With Chrome DevTool
To start using it, you must first download Google Chrome. After Google chrome is installed successfully, you can open a browser tab in chrome and navigate to the web page that you want to audit.
Next, Right-click on the page and select Inspect. You can also click the vertical three dots in the upper right corner of the browser, then navigate to More tools > Developer tools
After that, the DevTools panel will appear on the right or top of the page. From the toolbar click Lighthouse:
Then, after Lighthouse tools opens, make sure the five categories are selected, then select Generate report.
After Lighthouse has completed the audit process, it will take you to result screen.
After running an audit of your webpage, Lighthouse will generate reports on 5 different areas
- Performance, includes elements that slow down your page, including images and resources.
- Accessibility audits how accessible your content is to users, including the use of assistive technology
- Best practice identifies any web development elements that do not follow current guidelines and best practices.
- SEO highlights the problem of SEO itself with webpages that are not comprehensive
- Progressive Web App shows the performance of your web application and problems with implementation.
For a good score it is between 50 and 89. Then a very good score is between 90 and 100. Well the goal is to achieve a score in the range of 90 and 100 for each category.
Auditing your WordPress website regularly is very important to provide experience good for visitors and Search Engines. Thanks to tools like Google Lighthouse, you can quickly assess SEO performance, and accessibility in a few simple steps.
How? So understand to improve your website. No need to pay expensive or free for tools that have summarized every data on your website. Hope it is useful!
Read more:
7 Best WordPress Plugins To Start Your Website
Best Web Hosting Recommendation
