Get Actionable Insights from Your Website Health Check Powered by Google Lighthouse
Your website's performance directly impacts user experience, search rankings, and revenue. Google Lighthouse, a free tool, helps evaluate and improve your site's performance, accessibility, SEO, and security. By running audits, you’ll receive clear scores (0-100) and actionable recommendations to enhance your site.
Key takeaways:
Improve load times: Faster sites retain visitors and boost conversions.
Ensure accessibility: Make your site usable for all, including people with disabilities.
Optimize SEO: Better visibility means more traffic.
Strengthen security: Protect your users and build trust.
Run audits regularly, address flagged issues, and keep your site updated to maintain long-term success. Striking Alchemy can assist with audits, migrations, and ongoing support to ensure your website performs its best.
How to Run a Google Lighthouse Audit
You can run a Lighthouse audit directly within Google Chrome without needing any additional software. In just a few steps, you’ll get a detailed report showing where your website performs well and where it needs improvement.
Running Lighthouse via Chrome DevTools
The most straightforward way to perform a Lighthouse audit is through Chrome DevTools. This approach is especially useful for testing local sites or pages that require login credentials. Plus, it allows you to customize your audit settings and works even if your site isn’t publicly accessible.
Here’s how to get started:
Open Chrome and navigate to the page you want to test.
Press F12 (or right-click the page and select "Inspect") to open DevTools.
Find the "Lighthouse" tab. If it’s not visible, click the small arrow (>>) at the end of the tab list to reveal more options.
Next, choose whether to analyze your site for Desktop or Mobile performance. Selecting the 'Mobile' option is crucial for understanding how your site performs on smartphones, as mobile and desktop performance can differ significantly.
Now, decide which audit categories to include: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, SEO, and Progressive Web Apps (PWA). You can focus on specific categories based on your current goals, but running all categories will give you a broader perspective.
Before starting, you can fine-tune settings by clicking the gear icon. Options include adjusting throttling settings, clearing storage, or simulating different network conditions. For most users, the default settings are sufficient.
When you’re ready, click "Analyze page load". Lighthouse will reload your page and run its tests, which typically takes 30 to 60 seconds depending on your site’s complexity and the number of categories selected. Once complete, you’ll have a clear baseline to start making improvements.
Reading Initial Scores and Data
After the audit finishes, you’ll see a report with scores ranging from 0 to 100 for each category. These scores are color-coded for clarity: green (90–100) indicates strong performance, orange (50–89) suggests areas for improvement, and red (0–49) points to poor performance.
Each score reflects critical aspects like speed, accessibility, search engine visibility, and security. Focus on the Opportunities and Diagnostics sections for actionable recommendations. These sections highlight specific changes you can make to improve your site, often with estimated time savings for Performance fixes.
Because factors like network conditions and cache states can affect results, it’s a good idea to run multiple audits and use the median score for a more accurate picture. The Opportunities section will guide you toward impactful changes, while the Diagnostics section provides deeper insights into your site’s performance.
Finally, check the Passed Audits section to see what your site is already doing well. Recognizing your strengths ensures that any changes you make won’t negatively impact other aspects of your site.
The insights from this report will serve as a foundation for the next steps, helping you make targeted improvements to optimize your website’s performance.
Key Metrics in Lighthouse Reports: What They Mean
Building on the audit scores mentioned earlier, let’s dive into what each key metric in Lighthouse represents and how it can guide improvements for your website. These metrics provide a well-rounded look at your site’s performance from both a user and search engine perspective. By understanding these scores, you can focus on the changes that will make the biggest difference. Each category - Performance, Accessibility, SEO, and Best Practices - highlights a specific aspect of your site, offering actionable insights for improvement.
Performance: Optimizing for Speed
The Performance category measures how quickly your website loads and becomes usable. Here are the key metrics:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This tracks when the largest visible content on the page is fully rendered. To ensure a smooth user experience, aim for an LCP of 2.5 seconds or less for at least 75% of page visits.
Time to Interactive (TTI): This measures when your page becomes fully functional and responsive. Slow TTI can frustrate users if interactive elements take too long to respond.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This metric monitors unexpected layout shifts during loading. A CLS score of 0.1 or less for at least 75% of visits is ideal.
A slow or unresponsive site often leads to higher bounce rates and fewer conversions, making performance optimization a top priority.
Accessibility: Making Your Site User-Friendly
Accessibility ensures your website is inclusive, accommodating users with disabilities by working seamlessly with tools like screen readers. Common accessibility issues include:
Missing alt text for images, which prevents essential information from being conveyed to users relying on screen readers.
Buttons or links without clear descriptions, making navigation difficult.
Problems with color contrast or keyboard navigation, which can hinder usability for users with visual or motor impairments.
Improving accessibility not only widens your audience but also reduces legal risks.
SEO: Making Your Site More Discoverable
The SEO category evaluates how well your site is set up for search engines to find, crawl, and understand its content. Key areas include:
Mobile-Friendliness: Ensuring your site renders properly on all devices by using a viewport meta tag in the
<head>section.Title and Meta Description Tags: These help search engines understand your content and create engaging search result snippets.
Structured Data Markup: Properly implemented structured data can generate rich snippets, making your listings stand out.
Robots.txt and Internal Links: A valid robots.txt file and well-structured internal links help search engines navigate your site effectively.
With Google holding 91.47% of the search engine market share as of early 2024, optimizing for SEO is essential to boost organic traffic and improve rankings.
Best Practices: Security and Usability Standards
The Best Practices category focuses on modern web standards that enhance security and user trust. Key considerations include:
HTTPS Encryption: A must-have for all websites. Without HTTPS, browsers may flag your site as "not secure", potentially discouraging visitors and hurting your search rankings.
Valid Source Maps and Modern Coding: Avoiding outdated APIs and frameworks reduces security risks.
Updated JavaScript Libraries: Regularly updating libraries helps protect your site from vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.
"Lighthouse provides a somewhat detailed analysis of how Google judges your web pages. Not only is this audit vital to rank well in the search engines, but it also gives you important data into how users experience your website, no matter how they land there."
DigitalGuider
Turning Insights into Action: Practical Steps for Improvement
Now that we've reviewed key metrics, it's time to translate those insights into actionable steps. Focus on changes that will make the biggest difference for both your users and your search rankings. For instance, tackling performance issues should be a top priority - especially since 53% of mobile users leave websites that take longer than three seconds to load. Additionally, improving accessibility and SEO can help you tap into the 46% of Google searches that are for local information. Let’s break this down, starting with performance.
Fixing Performance Issues
Speed matters. Start by optimizing your images - compress files and switch to modern formats like WebP to reduce load times. Defer non-essential JavaScript and inline critical CSS to make your site interactive more quickly.
Boost server response times by upgrading your hosting plan, using a Content Delivery Network (CDN), or switching to a more reliable hosting provider. Don’t forget to clean up your code. Remove unused plugins, themes, or custom scripts, and use tools to streamline your CSS and JavaScript. These adjustments not only improve speed but also set the stage for better accessibility.
Making Your Site More Accessible
Accessibility isn't just about compliance; it’s about creating a site everyone can use. Add descriptive alt text to images so screen readers can interpret them. Improve color contrast to make text readable for users with visual impairments, and ensure all interactive elements are fully navigable with a keyboard. Organizing your content with a logical heading structure - using H1 for the main title, H2 for sections, and H3 for subsections - makes it easier for everyone to navigate your site, including users with assistive technologies.
Improving SEO Results
Strong SEO practices can dramatically increase your visibility. Use unique title tags (under 60 characters) and meta descriptions (under 160 characters) for every page. Considering that 75% of users never go beyond the first page of search results, these details are crucial.
Your site must also perform flawlessly on mobile devices. Use the viewport meta tag (<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">) and test your site on different devices to ensure a seamless experience.
Structured data is another game-changer. Incorporate valid schema markup, like LocalBusiness schema, to make your content machine-readable and eligible for rich snippets. For local SEO, consistency is key - your business name, address, and phone number should match across your site and your Google Business Profile. Naturally integrate location-specific keywords into your content to capture local searches, especially since 58% of consumers use voice search to find local information.
Finally, strengthen your internal linking. Clear and logical links help search engines understand your site’s structure and improve navigation for users. These small changes can make a big difference in how your site performs and ranks.
Maintaining Website Health for Long-Term Success
Keeping your website in great shape requires more than one-time fixes. Regular monitoring is essential to ensure your site continues to perform well as content, plugins, hosting, and web standards evolve. By staying vigilant, you can address issues before they affect user experience or search rankings.
Scheduling Regular Lighthouse Audits
To keep your website running smoothly, set up a quarterly schedule for Lighthouse audits. Conduct these audits on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1 to coincide with business quarters. This approach helps you track trends and identify potential problems over time.
Use a spreadsheet to log audit dates and scores for key metrics like performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices. Start by recording baseline scores during your first audit, then update them each quarter. For instance, if your performance score drops from 85 to 72, it’s a clear signal to investigate recent changes that may have caused the decline.
In addition to quarterly audits, run checks after major updates such as redesigns, hosting migrations, or significant content additions. You might also want to perform monthly spot checks on critical pages like your homepage or key product pages to ensure they’re always performing at their best.
Future-Proofing Your Website
The online landscape is constantly shifting thanks to updates in ranking algorithms, browser technologies, and new tools. Staying ahead of these changes is key to protecting your website’s long-term value.
Regularly update your content management system and plugins. Outdated software can compromise both security and performance, which will show up in your Lighthouse scores. Dedicate time each month to review and install updates, testing them on a staging site first to avoid unexpected issues.
Keep an eye on Core Web Vitals through Google Search Console. These metrics are becoming increasingly important for rankings, so monitoring them helps you stay competitive.
Stay informed about emerging technologies like advanced CSS features, modern JavaScript frameworks, or new image formats. While you don’t need to adopt every trend immediately, understanding what’s on the horizon will help you make smart decisions about future upgrades.
Also, prioritize mobile-first indexing and optimize for voice search. Both are essential today, not just trends. Make sure your site works seamlessly on smartphones and that your content is written in natural language to answer common customer questions effectively.
Striking Alchemy's Role in Supporting Small Businesses
For small business owners, maintaining a website can feel overwhelming, especially with limited time and technical expertise. That’s where specialized support can make all the difference.
Framer-based websites, for example, offer an advantage in long-term maintenance. They’re built on modern web standards, making them easier to manage and ensuring consistent performance in Lighthouse audits.
Striking Alchemy provides in-depth website audits that go beyond the basics. Their team delivers clear, prioritized action plans without drowning you in technical jargon. You’ll get straightforward advice on what needs fixing and why it matters.
If you’re dealing with outdated website systems, their migration services can help. Many small businesses struggle with legacy elements that slow down performance. Transitioning to a modern platform like Framer can resolve these issues and boost your Lighthouse scores.
The studio also offers ongoing support, including monthly health monitoring and proactive issue resolution. This ensures potential problems are addressed before they impact your customers.
To empower clients further, Striking Alchemy provides training and documentation to help you maintain your site between professional audits. This might include simple checklists for content updates, tips on optimizing images, and guidance for adding new pages without compromising performance. With these tools, your website can stay in great shape, driving your business forward.
Conclusion: Get the Most from Your Website
Your website is more than just an online presence - it's a powerful tool for driving business growth. With the insights from a Google Lighthouse audit, you can unlock its full potential. By routinely evaluating performance, accessibility, SEO, and best practices, you're not only addressing issues but also gaining an edge that boosts conversions and improves search engine rankings.
Key Takeaways from a Lighthouse Health Check
Google Lighthouse replaces guesswork with clear, actionable data, helping you make informed decisions to improve your site.
Faster Load Times: Speed matters. A page that loads in one second versus three seconds can mean the difference between a successful sale and a visitor leaving your site. Faster sites keep users engaged and drive higher conversions.
Accessibility Benefits Everyone: Enhancements like better color contrast or alt text for images don’t just assist users with disabilities - they improve the experience for everyone. Clear navigation and readable content make your site more user-friendly and help search engines better understand your content.
SEO Improvements Add Up: Optimizing meta descriptions, headings, and mobile responsiveness pays off over time. While these changes may not deliver instant results, they build a foundation for long-term organic traffic growth.
Regular Lighthouse audits ensure you stay ahead of potential issues, keeping your site competitive and adaptable as technology evolves.
How Striking Alchemy Can Help
While Lighthouse audits provide valuable insights, turning those insights into meaningful improvements takes expertise - and that’s where Striking Alchemy steps in.
Striking Alchemy specializes in translating Lighthouse recommendations into impactful changes for small businesses. Their team offers in-depth website audits with prioritized action plans, focusing on what will deliver the greatest value for your specific goals. Instead of just showing you what’s wrong, they help you understand how to fix it effectively.
If your website struggles with outdated platforms and consistently low Lighthouse scores, Striking Alchemy’s migration services can upgrade you to modern, high-performance solutions. Many businesses experience significant boosts across all Lighthouse metrics after moving to platforms like Framer.
In addition to one-time improvements, they provide ongoing monitoring and support to ensure your site stays in top shape. This includes monthly health checks, proactive fixes, and guidance on content and functionality updates.
Ready to elevate your website's performance? Contact Striking Alchemy for a free website audit and migration strategy to see how Lighthouse insights can fuel your business growth.
FAQs
How often should I use Google Lighthouse to check my website’s performance and health?
Running a Google Lighthouse audit every six months is a solid routine to keep your website performing at its best. It’s also smart to run an audit after any major updates - like a redesign, adding new features, or making big changes to your content.
These regular checkups can help you catch potential problems early, enhance the user experience, and make sure your site aligns with the latest standards for performance, accessibility, and SEO.
What common SEO issues can Google Lighthouse help identify on my website?
Google Lighthouse is a handy tool for uncovering SEO issues that can hurt your site's visibility in search results. For instance, it often points out missing or poorly crafted meta tags like title tags and meta descriptions, which play a key role in making your site relevant to search queries. It can also highlight the absence of structured data, a feature that helps search engines better interpret your content.
Another common issue flagged by Lighthouse is the use of vague or non-descriptive link text. This not only affects accessibility for users but also impacts how effectively search engines can crawl your site. While Lighthouse scores alone won't make or break your SEO efforts, fixing these issues can lead to better search rankings and a smoother experience for your visitors.
How can I use Google Lighthouse to make my website more accessible for users with disabilities?
To improve your website's accessibility with Google Lighthouse, dive into the Accessibility section of its report. This feature checks important aspects like color contrast, the correct application of ARIA roles, and the logical flow of heading structures. It highlights specific problems and offers actionable advice to help you eliminate obstacles for users with disabilities.
Making Lighthouse a part of your regular testing routine allows you to consistently spot and resolve accessibility issues. This not only helps your site align with accessibility standards but also enhances usability for everyone, creating a more welcoming experience for all visitors.
