Frontend Dogma

How to Use Lighthouse Wisely in Your Front-End Projects

by @eleanorhecks@x.com (@designerlymag@x.com) on , tagged , , , , , , , (toot this?)

As a front-end developer, you’ve likely worked with Google’s Lighthouse to check your website performance. However, is it always the best choice for increasing the user experience (UX) factor? Are there times when you should forego Lighthouse for something else entirely?

Benefits of Using Lighthouse in Your Front-End Projects

Lighthouse is a fairly simple open-source tool that evaluates your site’s performance by looking at five metrics:

Lighthouse gives you a basic snapshot of the big elements that might bog your site down and cause it to underperform. The program scores each category on a scale of 100 and gives recommendations for fixing problem areas. Google suggests running the program five times for the most accurate measurements as many variables come into play.

While it gives you a good look at the technical aspects of your site, it may fail to understand your particular audience. Improving one or all five factors can improve search engine rankings but may not consider how users respond to the design.

When Should You Use Lighthouse?

You should run Lighthouse for front-end projects to find any potential performance issues. Slow server load times, unoptimized images, and excessive code can be easily fixed before launching your site.

Here are some instances where Lighthouse can be particularly useful.

When Can You Ignore Google’s Lighthouse Results?

While Lighthouse can be an incredibly valuable tool for accessibility and SEO when used alongside other tools, the debate on Lighthouse’s effectiveness rages on sites such as Reddit. Some people say that with smaller websites with lower traffic, they’ve seen dramatic increases in page position after making edits based on Lighthouse’s recommendations. However, others warn about creating worse user experiences for the sake of catering to what a search engine is looking for.

It’s important not to make changes blindly solely based on Lighthouse’s suggestions. Utilize Lighthouse scores alongside real user monitoring for a better picture of user satisfaction. Further, if your project doesn’t require offline capabilities, it’s fine to ignore PWA considerations.

Best Ways to Use Lighthouse

To get the most from Lighthouse, keep the following tips in mind.

1. Know Your Goals

Understand which metrics will have the most impact on your projects. An e-commerce site may benefit more from speed and accessibility, and a content-based design may benefit more from checking SEO.

2. Consider the Impact

As you look at each recommendation, think through the full impact of any changes. Will the site remain usable for your target audience if you change A and B? If Lighthouse recommends removing a third-party script, will it impact the performance of various features of the site?

Around 82% of people use Google as their search engine. Paying attention to recommendations to improve ranking is smart, but it can’t be your only focus.

3. Audit Critical Pages

You can run Lighthouse analysis on certain pages and see how well they’re performing. If you have a login page, how well it scores may not matter as much as how easy the form is to access. You can also tap into simulations, seeing what happens when you have high traffic or other bottlenecks.

Consider Other Factors

Lighthouse shouldn’t be the end-all score that determines if your website is successful. Be cautious of optimizing so much that you compromise the user experience. Always put UX above mechanics. Tap into the power of other performance indicators such as core web vitals and real user monitoring for deeper insights. The true goal is a high-performing site that functions well for users and brings them back repeatedly. Lighthouse is one element of creating the perfect website.

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