Stay ahead of your competitors by building the best Progressive Web Apps with Google’s Lighthouse test now!

In this blog post, you’ll learn about Progressive Web Apps and how Google Lighthouse test helps your business.

You will understand the audit categories in Lighthouse such as Search Engine Optimization, Performance, Accessibility, and more.

These audits give you insights to enhance the quality of your PWAs and web pages. The optimization based on insights improves your business ROI.

1. Deliver an app-like user experience with progressive web apps
2. How to use Lighthouse for auditing your PWAs?
3. How to run the Lighthouse test?
4. Discover the ease of using Lighthouse Chrome Extension

1. Deliver an app-like user experience with progressive web apps

Now, before I move into the nitty-gritty details of Google’s Lighthouse Test, let’s understand PWAs.

So, what is a Progressive Web App or PWA?

It is a web app with a native mobile app-like feel. PWAs can be created using the latest web capabilities.

You may be wondering, how is a Progressive Web App different from usual web apps or mobile apps?

Simple: It works on every URL across web browsers and can get optimized for mobile.

So, why use Progressive Web Apps?

As you already know, PWAs are web apps, so you do not have to download the app to enjoy app-like user experience.

Also, leading brands such as Washington Post, Ali Express, Forbes, and many others are already using PWAs.

Did You Know?

Through the Google Lighthouse test, you can get an audit report on whether your site has the right content site for Viewport of a PWA. Why is this important?

Lighthouse helps you to optimize your PWA for mobile with the audit test results.

2. How to use Lighthouse for auditing your PWAs?

If you are struggling to improve your PWA’s performance, Google’s Lighthouse test can help you.

Some of the PWA performance areas that you can test with the Lighthouse test are:

1. Your page redirects HTTP traffic to HTTPS.
2. Page contains some content in case scripts are unavailable.
3. Your page is configured for a custom splash screen.

Here’s something else:

Lighthouse 3.0, the latest version of Lighthouse allows you to output your audit reports in a CSV format.

You can use the Lighthouse 3.0 Scoring Guide to measure and understand the Lighthouse Performance Metrics.

Did You know?

You can also run the following audits with the Lighthouse test:

• Check the best practices for web development, including image optimization, known JS security vulnerabilities, etc.
• Test accessibility factors such as language, page elements, alt attribute in images, etc.
• Improve site performance through Speed Index, Performance Budgets, etc.
• Check your SEO performance by testing mobile-friendliness, meta information, crawling data, and more.

Source: developers.google.com

3. How to run the Lighthouse test?

Let’s talk about the different ways to run Lighthouse:

1. Use Google Chrome’s DevTools to conduct Lighthouse audits.
2. Run shell scripts in your command line to run Lighthouse.
3. Integrate Lighthouse test as a Node module in your integrated system.
4. Run the Chrome extension for Lighthouse to run Lighthouse in your Chrome Browser.

Did You Know?

Let’s talk about what’s a good lighthouse score?

As per Google, a score of 100 is the perfect score. It represents the 98th percentile, a point that Google indicates as the point of diminishing returns.

Also, you can minimize fluctuations in your performance score. To do so, run Lighthouse without anti-virus scanners, extensions, scripts, etc.

4. Discover the ease of using Lighthouse Chrome Extension

Earlier, we talked about the various ways to run Google’s Lighthouse Test.

Let me show you how it’s done.

Step – 1

Install the Chrome Extension of Lighthouse from the Chrome Web Store. The Lighthouse icon will appear next to the address bar on your Chrome web browser.

Step – 2

Enter the URL of the site or visit the page you want to audit.

Step – 3

Click on the Lighthouse icon and then, click on ‘Generate report.’ An audit report of the page will show up on a new page in your Chrome browser.

Step – 4

For running specific audits, select a category using the ‘Options’ button before you click on the ‘Generate report’ button.

Did You Know?

Other than running audits and improving site performance, you can use marketing techniques to boost your business ROI.

For our client, A Secret Admirer, we optimized their site and used several marketing techniques such as SEO, viral ads, etc.

Our web development and marketing efforts increased customer interaction, as well as revenue, for A Secret Admirer.

Conclusion

Now, you should be able to use the Lighthouse test for enhancing your PWAs, SEO, and more. It’ll help you to boost customer engagement and improve the profitability of your online business.

Let me just quickly recap:

1. Deliver an app-like user experience with progressive web apps
2. How to use Lighthouse for auditing your PWAs?
3. How to run the Lighthouse test?
4. Discover the ease of using Lighthouse Chrome Extension