By Shad Super in Questions —

How Can I Leverage Google Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights to Diagnose and Improve Core Web Vitals Performance?

Summary

Google Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights are valuable tools that can help diagnose and improve Core Web Vitals performance. They offer clear insight into problematic areas of your website, such as site load times, interactivity, and content stability, and offer recommendations industry-leading experts to fix these issues. Following these guidelines can lead to significant improvements in your site's performance and user experience.

Understanding Core Web Vitals

The Core Web Vitals are a set of performance metrics developed by Google to quantify user experience on the web. These metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Improving these metrics can lead to better user experience and potentially higher search rankings [Evaluating-page-experience, 2020].

Using Google Lighthouse

Diagnostics

Google Lighthouse is an open-source tool that audits the performance, accessibility, SEO, and more of web pages. It provides detailed reports on how well the page did, along with suggestions on how to improve the page. Lighthouse collects and analyzes a wealth of data about how a page responds to simulated user interactions [Lighthouse Performance Scoring, 2021].

Lighthouse and Core Web Vitals

Lighthouse measures key performance metrics that align with Core Web Vitals. These include LCP, which measures loading performance, Total Blocking Time (TBT, a lab equivalent to FID), which measures interactivity, and CLS, which measures visual stability [Web Vitals, 2021].

Using PageSpeed Insights

Tool Overview

PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a tool that incorporates data from both Lighthouse and the Chrome User Experience Report (CrUX) to provide a comprehensive view of a web page’s performance. PSI offers a performance score, core vital metrics, and a set of recommendations to improve the page's performance [About PageSpeed Insights, 2021].

PSI and Core Web Vitals

PSI provides real-world (field) and lab data to evaluate Core Web Vitals. The field data is provided by the CrUX and reflects real-world user experience. Lab data is provided by Lighthouse and helps identify and debug performance issues [About PageSpeed Insights, 2021].

Improving Core Web Vitals using Lighthouse and PSI

To improve Core Web Vitals, follow the recommendations provided by Lighthouse and PSI. Some general interventions include optimizing images, minimizing JavaScript execution, removing unnecessarily large third-party scripts, ensuring text stays visible during Webfont loads, and minimizing main thread work [Optimizing Content Efficiency, 2021].

Conclusion

Leveraging the detailed insights from Google Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights can greatly assist in diagnosing and improving Core Web Vitals performance on your site. The considered interventions can offer substantive gains in website performance and user experience.

References