In order to provide the best web experience we have taken initiatives to test our website’s performance, one of those initiatives is Lighthouse provided by google.
Lighthouse is an open-source tool that is used to run an audit against your web pages and provides scores and suggestions for improving page performance, accessibility, SEO, and more.
google
When we first test we received unsatisfactory results that pushed us to improve.
The most important Lighthouse Audit scores to us was the Performance, Accessibility and SEO.
On a Desktop we scored on performance 55, Accessibility 95, Best Practices 92, SEO 82.
On a mobile we scored on performance 23, Accessibility 95, Best Practices 83, SEO 85.
In order to improve our Lighthouse audit we set the following goals:
- Reduce website Load time.
- Setup a Sitemap.
- Create a “Robots.txt” file.
- Improve font loading.
- Speed up image loading.
- Ease accessibility.
Challenges Met in order to achieve the above goals
- While it easier to satisfy audit needs on a desktop perspective it is harder to do the same on a mobile.
- In order to produce accessible web pages we have to divert from our initial design plan and change colours and other design features.
- Certain essential JavaScript files maybe slow.
- Lighthouse audits only performed on single page and while improving one page other pages may get affected. Performing Lighthouse audits for an entire website with dynamic pages may take a lot of time.
- With dynamic web pages it is hard to keep up with Lighthouse audits.
- Browser Lighthouse is affected by cache.
- WordPress is one of the biggest challenges considering that it loads its own JavaScript files which can’t be removed.
Solutions to Challenges
- Since most people access webpages on mobile screens it also notable that Improvements should be focused on mobile.
- The Bigger Picture is that we can either sacrifice Accessibility or Website Design. We may strive to strike a balance of Accessibility score and web design.
- By updating JavaScript files and removing those that are not in use.
- Essential Pages are the most crucial pages prioritising them.
- Lighthouse audits are not once off but periodical.
- Clearing cache can help get real results.
Final Results
One of the most difficult audit values to improve was performance, seconded by accessibility, SEO and Best Practices were the least of the problems.
Due to the dynamicity of this website we only run Lighthouse audits on the following web pages.
Home Page
Summery
Lighthouse Audits are important in that they give you a picture of your website’s performance and guide you on how to improve them. Improvements can be both critical and non-critical, there will sacrifices to be made on design and functionality. With the ever-changing dynamic pages it is import that Lighthouse audits be done regularly, for example once a month.