I recently had the opportunity to sit in on a call with an SEO agency as they pitched their services to a potential client. The agency did a solid job of highlighting the importance of website optimization and presented a clear plan for improvement.
However, when they got to the Lighthouse slide, showcasing a score they described as “very poor,” I couldn’t help but think that this part of the pitch might be a bit misleading. Here’s why.
Understanding How Lighthouse Works
Lighthouse is a tool developed by Google that provides insights into a website’s performance, accessibility, and best practices.
It generates a score based on various metrics such as First Contentful Paint (FCP), Speed Index, Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Total Blocking Time (TBT), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
These scores are calculated using lab data, which means they are simulated tests and not based on real user interactions.
The Real Factors Affecting Website Speed
Your website speed is dependent on two critical factors: your users’ devices and their internet connections.
If you’re targeting users from urban areas like London, it’s likely that many of them will have the latest Google Pixel devices and access your website from 5G networks. In such cases, it doesn’t matter if your images are 1MB in size; those devices are more than capable of processing that data with ease.
On the other hand, if you’re targeting users in rural areas with sparse internet connections, or your users are from third-world countries with older and cheaper devices, you’ll need to do some optimizing. But you’ll already know that when you see low Core Web Vitals scores.
This is because Core Web Vitals are based on real-world usage data directly from your users, providing a more accurate picture of how they experience your website.
The Real Score: Inside Google Search Console
The true measure of your website’s performance lies within Google Search Console (GSC). GSC provides authoritative data on your website’s Core Web Vitals, which are directly linked to Google’s page experience ranking system. Core Web Vitals include metrics such as LCP, FID, and CLS, which offer a more comprehensive view of your website’s performance.
Conclusion
The next time an SEO agency presents you with a Lighthouse score that seems alarming, take a step back. Understand how Lighthouse works, its limitations, and the importance of focusing on Core Web Vitals. By doing so, you can ensure that your website offers an excellent user experience and maintains its competitive edge in search engine rankings. Additionally, it’s important to consider other factors that may impact your website’s performance, such as server speed, code efficiency, and overall website structure. These technical SEO audit indicators can provide valuable insights into areas that may need improvement and help to uncover any underlying issues that could be affecting your Core Web Vitals. By addressing these factors in addition to Lighthouse scores, you can ensure that your website is fully optimized for search engine success.
If you’re looking for expert guidance on optimizing your website’s performance and improving your Core Web Vitals, consider reaching out to a professional technical SEO service like my Technical SEO Service. With a deep understanding of website speed and user experience optimization, these services can help identify issues affecting your loading times and suggest targeted solutions to enhance overall performance. Additionally, tools like a free SEO text compression tool can be utilized to reduce the size of your text files, further improving the speed at which your pages load. By combining professional expertise with the right tools, you’re well on your way to better search engine rankings and a smoother user experience.
P.S. If you’re preparing an SEO pitch, use tools like GTmetrix or WebPageTest to identify high-impact issues and tie those findings in with Lighthouse scores for a more comprehensive pitch.
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