How to use Lighthouse to improve technical SEO

Lighthouse is an open-source tool developed by Google that can be used to improve the quality and performance of a website. The tool includes a set of audits that can help identify potential issues that could be impacting the technical SEO of a site, and it provides guidance on how to fix those issues. In this blog post, we’ll go over some of the key features of Lighthouse and how to use them to improve the technical SEO of your website.

Before diving into Lighthouse, it is important to understand what technical SEO is. Technical SEO refers to the practices and techniques used to ensure that a website is technically sound and properly optimized for search engines. This includes things like making sure the site is crawlable and indexable, that it loads quickly, and that it is mobile-friendly.

Lighthouse can be run in several different ways, but the most common way is through the Google Chrome web browser. To run Lighthouse in Chrome, open the Developer Tools console (by pressing F12 or right-clicking on a webpage and selecting “Inspect”), and then click on the “Audits” tab. From there, you can select which audits you want to run, and Lighthouse will generate a report with the results.

One of the key features of Lighthouse is its ability to identify potential performance issues on a website. This includes things like slow loading times, large file sizes, and unnecessary code. The tool can help identify specific areas of the site that are causing performance issues, such as large images or third-party scripts, and it provides guidance on how to optimize them.

Lighthouse also checks if website is mobile-friendly, meaning if website is responsive and easily navigable on mobile devices. If a website is not mobile-friendly, Google’s mobile-first indexing process may not fully crawl or index the website which will effect SEO negatively.

Another important aspect of technical SEO is ensuring that a website is crawlable and indexable. Lighthouse can help identify potential issues in this area, such as broken links, missing or incorrect meta tags, and duplicate content. By fixing these issues, you can ensure that search engines are able to easily access and understand the content on your site, which can help improve the site’s visibility in search results.

Lighthouse also checks the accessibility of website, this is important not just for SEO but also to create a inclusive web. Website accessibility can be improved by providing alternative text for images, using descriptive link text, and providing enough contrast between text and background.

In addition to identifying potential issues, Lighthouse also provides guidance on how to fix them. This includes code snippets and links to further resources, making it easy to take action on the issues identified by the tool. It also includes best practices for SEO and provides a general overview of website performance which can be shared with other team members for collaborative improvement.

One thing to keep in mind is that Lighthouse is not the only tool to audit website for SEO, and other tools such as Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs etc can also be used to get a comprehensive analysis of website and improve SEO. However, Lighthouse is a powerful, easy-to-use tool that can be a great starting point for improving the technical SEO of a website.

In conclusion, Lighthouse is a powerful tool that can help improve the technical SEO of a website by identifying potential issues and providing guidance on how to fix them. By using Lighthouse to improve the performance, accessibility, mobile-friendliness and crawlability of a site, you can help ensure that the site is properly optimized for search engines and that it provides a positive user experience.

To further improve your website’s technical SEO, Lighthouse includes several other audits that can help identify potential issues. These include:

• “Best Practices” audit: This audit checks for common best practices that can help improve the overall quality and performance of a website. This includes things like using HTTPS, avoiding depreciated technologies, and using browser caching. By following these best practices, you can help ensure that your website is up-to-date and that it provides a positive user experience.
• “SEO” audit: This audit checks for common issues that can impact a website’s visibility in search results. This includes things like missing or incorrect meta tags, duplicate content, and broken links. By fixing these issues, you can help ensure that search engines can easily understand and index the content on your site, which can help improve the site’s visibility in search results.
• “Progressive Web App” audit: This audit checks for features that can help a website function like a progressive web app (PWA), which can provide a more engaging and app-like experience for users. This includes things like offline support, push notifications, and a web app manifest file. By implementing these features, you can help ensure that your website provides a positive user experience and that it can be accessed even in areas with poor connectivity.

It’s also important to note that while Lighthouse can help identify potential issues, it’s important to not to take all the audits as 100% must-fix, but prioritize them according to the website’s goals and target audiences. The report generated by Lighthouse provides a score for each category, it’s important to focus on the areas where your website has the lowest scores, as they may have the most significant impact on your website’s performance.

Additionally, it’s always a good practice to continuously monitor the performance of your website using Lighthouse, and other tools, and address any issues that arise. Keep track of the progress and make sure to re-run the Lighthouse audits on regular basis to see if the changes made have had an impact and if there are any new issues that need to be addressed.

In summary, Lighthouse is a powerful tool that can help identify and fix technical SEO issues on your website. By regularly running Lighthouse audits, implementing the recommendations provided, and continuously monitoring the performance of your website, you can help ensure that your website is properly optimized for search engines and that it provides a positive user experience. Keep in mind the site’s goals and target audience while prioritizing the issues, and always track the progress to see the impact of changes.

In addition to using Lighthouse to identify and fix technical SEO issues, there are several other steps you can take to improve the technical SEO of your website. Here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure your website is accessible to everyone. This includes providing alternative text for images, using descriptive link text, and providing enough contrast between text and background. This will not only make your site accessible to users with disabilities but also helps SEO.
• Use structured data on your site. Structured data is a way to provide information about a webpage to search engines in a structured format. This can include things like the name of a business, the type of content on a page, and the address of a location. By using structured data, you can help search engines understand the content on your site and make it more likely to appear in rich snippets in search results.
• Optimize your images. Large images can slow down your website and negatively impact performance. By optimizing your images, you can reduce their file size without losing quality. This can be done using image compression tools or using proper image format.
• Utilize browser caching. Browser caching allows your website’s resources to be stored on a user’s device so they don’t have to be downloaded each time they visit the site. This can help speed up the website’s load time, which can improve the user experience and help SEO.
• Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). CDN is a network of servers that are distributed around the world that allows users to access your website from a server that is geographically closest to them. This can help speed up the website’s load time, especially for users that are located far away from your server location.
• Check for broken links. Broken links can be frustrating for users and can also hurt SEO. Regularly check for broken links on your website and fix or redirect them as soon as possible.
• Keep your website up-to-date. It’s important to stay on top of any updates to the CMS or themes you’re using and make sure your website is running the most recent version. This can help ensure that your website is secure and that you’re taking advantage of any new features or performance improvements that are available.

By implementing these steps, in addition to using Lighthouse to identify and fix technical SEO issues, you can help improve the technical SEO of your website and increase your visibility in search results. Keep in mind that SEO is a continuous process, it’s important to be vigilant and make updates regularly to stay ahead of the competition.

One of the most powerful features of Lighthouse is its ability to generate detailed performance reports. These reports can help you identify which aspects of your website are causing performance issues and how to fix them. The report also gives you an overall performance score, which can help you track your progress over time.

The performance report contains several sections, including “Speed Index,” “First Contentful Paint,” “Time to Interactive,” and “First CPU Idle.” These sections provide information on how long it takes for your website to load and become usable for users, which is an important aspect of technical SEO.

The “Speed Index” measures how quickly the visual elements of a page are displayed. A low score in this section indicates that it takes a long time for the page to be visually complete. This could be caused by large images, too much JavaScript, or other issues.

The “First Contentful Paint” measures the time it takes for the first visual elements to appear on the screen. A low score in this section indicates that it takes a long time for the page to start loading. This could be caused by slow server response times or large resources blocking the rendering.

The “Time to Interactive” measures the time it takes for a page to become fully interactive for users. A low score in this section indicates that it takes a long time for the page to be fully usable. This could be caused by slow JavaScript execution or other issues.

The “First CPU Idle” measures the time it takes for the browser to become idle after loading the page. A low score in this section indicates that it takes a long time for the browser to finish processing the page, which could be caused by large amounts of JavaScript or other issues.

By analyzing the performance report, you can identify which sections of your website are causing performance issues and take action to fix them. For example, if the “Speed Index” score is low, you might consider optimizing your images, minifying your CSS and JavaScript, and using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up the load time of your website.

Additionally, Lighthouse also generates a report on best practices and an SEO report, these report should be looked into as well as they highlight other areas that need improvement.

In summary, Lighthouse is a powerful tool for improving the technical SEO of a website. Its performance reports, best practices report and SEO report can help identify issues and provide guidance on how to fix them, which can help improve the overall performance, accessibility, mobile-friendliness and crawlability of your site. Keep in mind that Lighthouse is not the only tool to audit website for SEO, however it is a great starting point, It’s important to regularly run Lighthouse audits, implement the recommendations, and track your progress over time.