Boost Your Website’s Performance for Free with Google Lighthouse

Lighthouse Scores

Google Lighthouse is a free, open-to-everyone tool that lets you check how your website is doing—no need to bring in a web design company. Not straight away anyway! It gives you a report card on how your site performs, how accessible it is, how well it’s optimised for search engines, and even checks a few other best-practice boxes. Here’s a breakdown and then we’ll show you how to access and use it.

What does Lighthouse measure?

  • Performance: Looks at how fast your site is and whether it works smoothly. It checks things like how long it takes for the largest elements to load (LCP), how stable your layout is (CLS), and how quickly the page becomes interactive (TTI).
  • Accessibility: Makes sure your site is user-friendly for everyone, including those with disabilities. It reviews things like clear link names, readable text with proper color contrast, and properly scaled viewports for different devices.
  • Best Practices: Evaluates whether your site is up-to-date with web standards, like using secure connections (HTTPS), avoiding unsafe links, and following coding best practices.
  • SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Spotlights areas to improve so search engines can find and rank your site more easily.

Why use Lighthouse?

  • Easy insights: Get a clear, detailed report showing what’s working and what’s not—great for making informed fixes.
  • DIY-friendly: Whether your site is public or behind a login, you can run Lighthouse on it.
  • Better website: Use the tips to boost speed, security, and user experience while meeting industry standards.

Some of the findings you may be able to do yourself – others you’ll most likely need the help of a web designer. The main point of the tool for me is that it gives you control, third party information that you can use to make informed decisions.

How to use Lighthouse

First off you need the Chrome browser, you can download it here. The rest is in the video and following screen shots below:

Step-by-step

Chrome Settings
1. Open Chrome Setting and select Extensions
Developer mode
2. Ensure Developer mode is turned on
Developer tools menu
3. Select Developer Tools
Lighthouse Tool
4. Select Lighthouse – click Analyse Page
Lighthouse results
5. View the results card

Knowledge is power and Google Lighthouse is an independent 3rd party tool that you can use to help be properly informed about issues related to your site. We’ve used it with clients who have been confused about the conflicting advice they have been given when trying to develop their site for marketing. They can see for themselves if the advice been given matches up.

Give it a go, or if you want to learn more get in touch, we’ll be happy to take you through things.