Google Lighthouse: What It Is & How to Use It

In today’s digital world, having a fast, accessible, and user-friendly website is more important than ever. Google Lighthouse is a powerful tool that helps website owners, developers, and marketers understand how well their website performs. It provides helpful feedback and scores showing where a website is doing well and needs improvement. In this blog, we will explain what Google Lighthouse is, why it matters, and how to run it step by step.

What is Google Lighthouse?

Google Lighthouse is a free, open-source tool developed by Google to help improve the quality of websites. It checks important areas like how fast your website loads, how easy it is to use for everyone, and how well it follows web development rules. It looks at five key areas: performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and Progressive Web App (PWA) features. After checking the page, it scores each category and offers clear, straightforward advice to help you fix problems and improve your website. It’s easy to use, even if you are not a web expert.

Lighthouses can be run in several easy ways. You can use it directly from the Chrome browser without installing anything. You can run it using the command line if you’re more technical. There are also online tools like PageSpeed Insights that use Lighthouse to show website performance. All these methods are simple and free to use.

Key Features of Google Lighthouse:

• Performance Analysis:- Checks how fast your website loads and how smooth the user experience is. It looks at important things like how quickly the first text or image appears and how long it takes before users can interact with the page.
• Accessibility Audit:- Reviews how easy your website is for everyone, including people with disabilities. It checks for readable text, clear labels, and keyboard navigation.
• Best Practices Review:- Look at how well your website follows safe and modern web development rules. It checks security, outdated code, and whether your site works well on different devices.
• SEO Suggestions:- Helps improve how easily search engines can understand your website. It checks things like titles, descriptions, and mobile-friendliness.
• PWA Evaluation:- Check if your website can work like an app. It looks at things like offline support, responsiveness, and fast loading.

Whether you’re a beginner or an expert, Lighthouse makes it easier to build better websites that are fast, accessible, and optimized for search engines.

Why Use Google Lighthouse?

Now that you know what Google Lighthouse is, let’s discuss why it is so important.

Improve Website Speed

Website speed plays a key role in both user experience and SEO. A slow-loading site can cause visitors to leave before engaging. People expect websites to load quickly, especially on mobile

Boost Accessibility

Making your website easy for everyone, including people with disabilities, is very important. This means things like readable text, keyboard navigation, and screen reader support. Lighthouse checks your site for accessibility issues and shows what needs to be fixed. Improving accessibility helps more people use your site and creates a better overall experience.

 Follow Best Practices

 Lighthouse checks your website for common coding mistakes and unsafe design choices that could cause problems. It makes sure your site follows the latest and safest web development rules. Following these best practices makes your website more secure, runs smoothly, and works well for all users and devices.

Enhance SEO

Search engines need to quickly understand your content to increase your website’s search results. Lighthouse looks at how well your site is set up for SEO and gives straightforward tips on improving it. Better SEO means more people can find your website when they search online.

Support Progressive Web Apps (PWA)

If you want your website to work like a mobile app, Lighthouse will check how well it meets PWA standards.

Using Lighthouse regularly helps you maintain a high-quality website that performs well and provides a better user experience.

How to Run Google Lighthouse

You might be wondering how to run Google Lighthouse. There are a few simple methods:

1.  Using Chrome DevTools

• Open Google Chrome.
• Visit the web page you want to test.
• Right-click anywhere on the page and select “Inspect” or press Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows) or Cmd+Option+I (Mac).
• Click on the “Lighthouse” tab in the DevTools panel.
• Choose the categories you want to test (Performance, Accessibility, SEO, etc.).
• Click on “Analyze Page Load” or “Generate report.”
• Lighthouse will run the audit and give you a report with scores and suggestions.

2.  Using PageSpeed Insights

• Go to PageSpeed Insights.
• Enter your website URL.
• Click on “Analyze.”
• You will get a Lighthouse-powered report showing mobile and desktop performance.

3. Using Chrome Extension

• Visit the Chrome Web Store.
• Search for “Lighthouse” and install the extension.
• Open the website you want to test.
• Click the Lighthouse icon in the Chrome toolbar.
• Choose your options and run the audit.

4. Using the Command Line

• You can use Node.js and run Lighthouse from the command line if you’re a developer.
• Install Node.js.
• Open the terminal and run: npm install -g lighthouse
• To test a page, type lighthouse https://yourwebsite.com
• This method is excellent for automated testing and integration in development workflows.

Understanding the Lighthouse Report

The Lighthouse report is divided into five main sections, each focusing on a different part of your website’s quality. Each section gives your site a score of 100 and includes helpful tips for improving it.

1. Performance

This section looks at how quickly your website loads and becomes ready to use. It measures essential things like how fast the first content appears (First Contentful Paint), how quickly the page looks complete (Speed Index), and when users can start interacting with it (Time to Interactive). A fast website makes users happy and helps with SEO.

2. Accessibility

This checks if people with disabilities can use your site. It looks at colour contrast, how easy it is to use a keyboard, and whether screen readers can read the content. Improving accessibility makes your site available to more people.

3. Best Practices

Here, Lighthouse checks for coding mistakes and possible security problems. It looks for things like using HTTPS, avoiding outdated code, and keeping the site safe.

4. SEO

This section helps ensure your site can be found easily by search engines. It checks for proper meta tags, good link structure, and mobile-friendliness.

5. Progressive Web App (PWA)

This checks if your site works like a mobile app. It looks at offline support, fast loading, and responsive design.

Tips to Improve Your Lighthouse Scores

After running a Lighthouse report, it’s essential to take steps to fix the problems it finds. Improving your scores will make your website faster, more user-friendly, and better optimized for search engines. Here are some easy-to-follow tips for each area:

 Performance:

• A fast-loading website keeps visitors happy and reduces bounce rates. To improve performance:
• Compress images to make them smaller and load faster.
• Use lazy loading so images and videos only load when the user scrolls to them.
• Minimize JavaScript and CSS by removing unused code.
• Enable browser caching so repeat visitors load your site faster.
• Use a CDN (Content Delivery Network) to deliver content quickly from servers near the user.

Accessibility:

• Make sure everyone, including people with disabilities, can use your website:
• Use clear, easy-to-read fonts.
• Add alt text to images so screen readers can describe them.
• Make buttons and links easy to use with a keyboard.
• Use semantic HTML like <header>, <nav>, and <main> for better structure and screen reader support.

Best Practices:

• These tips help make your website safer and more reliable:
• Always use HTTPS to keep data secure.
• Avoid outdated libraries that may have bugs or security risks.
• Handle JavaScript errors so your site doesn’t break unexpectedly.

SEO:

• Good SEO helps your site appear in search engine results:
• Add page titles and meta descriptions that clearly explain each page.
• Use proper heading tags (H1, H2, etc.) to organize your content.
• Make sure your site is mobile-friendly, as most users browse on phones.

Progressive Web App (PWA):

• To make your site feel like an app.
• Add a service worker to support offline access.
• Include a web app manifest with icons and app info.
• Make your site work smoothly on all devices and screen sizes.

Improving these areas will raise your Lighthouse scores and create a better experience for your users.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

When using Google Lighthouse, it’s easy to make a few common mistakes that can stop you from getting the best results. Avoiding these mistakes can help improve your website’s overall quality and user experience.

Ignoring Mobile Performance

A large number of people visit websites using mobile phones or tablets. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, users might leave quickly. Always test your site on mobile devices and ensure it loads fast, is easy to navigate, and looks good on smaller screens.

Only Focusing on One Category

While performance is important, it’s not the only thing that matters. Accessibility, SEO, and best practices are just as important. If you only focus on one area, your website may still have problems in others. Try to improve all your Lighthouse scores, not just one.

Not Running Regular Audits

Websites constantly change—new content, updates, and features can affect your performance. That’s why it’s essential to run Lighthouse audits regularly. This helps you spot new issues before they become big problems.

Skipping Fixes

Running a Lighthouse test is just the beginning. If you don’t take action to fix the issues it finds, your scores and user experience won’t improve. Make sure to follow the suggestions and fix the problems.

Testing from a Logged-In State

If you run Lighthouse while logged into your site, the results may not reflect what regular visitors see. Always test your site as a guest user to get accurate performance data.

Avoiding these mistakes will help you get the most out of Lighthouse and keep your website running smoothly.

Conclusion

Google Lighthouse is a powerful and essential tool for anyone who builds, manages, or maintains websites. It helps you understand how well your site is doing in critical areas like speed, accessibility, best practices, SEO, and Progressive Web App features. What makes it even more helpful is that it doesn’t just show you your scores—it also tells you exactly what’s wrong and how to fix it.

Whether you are a web developer trying to improve code, a marketer aiming to boost SEO, or a business owner who wants to give visitors a better experience, Lighthouse gives you the insights you need. Following its advice can make your website faster, easier to use, and more likely to appear in search engine results.

Another great thing about Lighthouse is that it is free and easy to use. You can run it directly in Chrome DevTools or use other tools like PageSpeed Insights. Just remember to test both desktop and mobile versions and check regularly, especially after making changes to your site.

Now that you know what Google Lighthouse is and how to use it, why wait? Try running a Lighthouse audit today and start taking steps to improve your website for all your visitors.