What is Google Lighthouse and should you be using it?

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Nov 29, 2024 / by
What is Google Lighthouse and should you be using it?

When it comes to site building, performance is everything. A website’s speed, user experience, and overall optimisation can determine whether a visitor becomes a loyal customer or bounces off to a competitor. Measuring the quality of your web pages used to be a pretty laborious process involving dozens of hours of manual work.

Today, however, we have automated solutions like Google Lighthouse to do the heavy lifting for us.

Google Lighthouse is a tool that promises to help developers, marketers, and business owners measure and improve their website’s performance. It’s also completely free! In this blog, we’ll explore what Google Lighthouse is, how it works, and whether it’s the right tool for your website optimisation needs.

What is Google Lighthouse?

Google Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool developed by Google that helps analyse the quality of web pages. It provides detailed insights into various aspects of a website’s performance, including speed, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. Lighthouse generates an easy-to-understand report with scores out of 100, which indicate how well a website performs across these key areas.

You can run Lighthouse directly in the Google Chrome browser’s DevTools or through an online interface, and it’s designed to give you actionable feedback to help make your site better for users and search engines alike.

Key Metrics Covered by Google Lighthouse

1. Performance

Performance looks at how quickly the page loads and responds to user input. It measures metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which are critical for understanding how quickly users see content on the page.

2. Accessibility

Accessibility checks how well the website caters to users with disabilities, evaluating things like image alt text, ARIA labels, and proper heading structures. This is crucial not only for inclusivity but also for improving your SEO.

3. Best Practices

This audit looks at general coding practices and identifies potential vulnerabilities or outdated technology on the site. It includes aspects such as HTTPS security and the proper use of APIs.

4. SEO

Lighthouse provides an SEO score based on common best practices, such as having meta tags, alt text, and proper use of header tags – all of which are essential for ranking well in search engines.

5. Progressive Web App (PWA)

If you’re considering making your website more app-like, Lighthouse will also evaluate it against PWA standards to ensure users have a seamless experience.

How to Use Google Lighthouse

Using Google Lighthouse is almost deceptively simple. You can access it through Google Chrome’s DevTools by right-clicking on a webpage, selecting “Inspect,” then navigating to the “Lighthouse” tab. From there, you generate a report for either desktop or mobile performance. Google Lighthouse then runs a series of audits and presents you with a detailed report, breaking down what’s working and what needs improvement.

For those less comfortable with browser tools, there are also online platforms that allow you to run Lighthouse audits by simply pasting in a URL.

Should You Be Using Google Lighthouse?

Google Lighthouse can be a game-changer for anyone looking to improve their website’s performance, but it may not be the best fit for every situation. Let’s dive into the benefits and potential drawbacks of using it.

Why You Should Use Google Lighthouse

1. Improve User Experience

Lighthouse helps identify issues that directly affect user experience, such as slow load times or missing interactive elements. By fixing these, you can ensure visitors have a positive experience on your site, which in turn increases engagement and conversions.

2. Actionable Insights for Developers and Marketers

One of Lighthouse’s key benefits is that it provides actionable insights. It doesn’t just tell you what’s wrong; it tells you why it’s wrong and how you can fix it. Whether you’re a marketer looking to optimise for SEO or a developer wanting to fix performance bottlenecks, Lighthouse has got you covered.

3. Free and Easily Accessible

Lighthouse is free and integrated into Google Chrome, making it accessible to anyone. It’s a straightforward, no-cost solution for getting a snapshot of your website’s health across multiple key metrics.

4. Monitor SEO and Accessibility

Google places increasing emphasis on accessibility and user experience as ranking factors. Using Lighthouse to regularly audit these areas helps ensure that your site is not only user-friendly but also ranking-friendly, keeping you ahead of the competition.

5. Regular Updates from Google

Because Lighthouse is developed by Google, it’s regularly updated in line with Google’s best practices and ranking algorithm updates. This means it always reflects the latest standards, making it a reliable tool to stay on top of your website’s needs.

When Lighthouse Might Not Be Enough

1. Limited Customisation

Google Lighthouse is fantastic for providing general insights, but it lacks the ability to customise tests. If your business has specific performance benchmarks or requirements, you may need a more tailored tool or professional audit to get deeper, customised insights.

2. Surface-Level Analysis

Lighthouse identifies broad performance issues, but it doesn’t go deep into certain technical aspects, such as server-side problems. In these cases, you might need additional tools to diagnose and solve complex backend issues.

3. Requires Technical Knowledge

While the interface and reports are user-friendly, some of the recommendations can require a fair bit of technical knowledge to implement. For marketers or small businesses without an in-house developer, acting on Lighthouse recommendations can be challenging.

4. Not a One-Stop SEO Solution

Lighthouse does include an SEO audit, but it covers only the basics. For a more in-depth SEO strategy, Lighthouse can be a good starting point, but it’s no substitute for a comprehensive SEO audit or ongoing SEO campaigns.

Is Google Lighthouse Right for You?

Google Lighthouse is an incredibly powerful, free tool that offers detailed insights into your website’s performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. For marketers and developers looking for a quick and reliable way to assess and improve their site, Lighthouse is a great place to start.

However, like all tools, its utility depends on your needs. If you’re a small business or just beginning your digital journey, Lighthouse provides the information you need to make significant improvements. For larger websites or more in-depth needs, it’s best to use Lighthouse alongside other specialised tools or seek professional guidance. Regular Lighthouse audits can keep your site optimised and user-friendly but it should always be just one step in your site optimisation journey.

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