In 2023, having a high-performing website is crucial for the success of your eCommerce business, especially if you're using Magento/Adobe Commerce. Google's Core Web Vitals and the introduction of Lighthouse as a ranking factor make it essential to prioritize your Magento site's performance. In this article, we will explore the key Lighthouse metrics and their significance and provide practical tips to enhance your Magento website's performance metrics.
Understanding Google Lighthouse and Its Metrics
Google Lighthouse is an automated tool that evaluates web page quality by conducting audits in various categories, including performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO, and progressive web app (PWA). The overall score is based on these audits, with a perfect score being 100. A score between 90-100 indicates a great performance, while anything below 90 raises concerns.
- Performance Audit
1) First Contentful Paint (FCP): Measures the time it takes for the first content to appear. Aim for an FCP under 2 seconds for optimal performance.
2) Speed Index (SI): Evaluates how quickly the page content is visually populated. Target a speed index time under 4.3 seconds.
3) Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): Measures the time it takes for the largest visible element to render. Optimize this metric for the best user experience.
4) Total Blocking Time (TBT): Quantifies the page's load responsiveness to user input. Aim for TBT less than 300 milliseconds.
5) Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Determines how visually stable a page is by measuring unexpected layout shifts. Aim for a CLS score of 0.1 or less. - Accessibility Audit
Ensures your website is usable for all users, including those with disabilities. Aim for a high accessibility score, close to 100, by following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 - Best Practices Audit
Evaluates web development components to ensure best practices are implemented for a great user experience. Aim to pass all audits to optimize this metric. - SEO Audit
Analyzes your site's structure to ensure it is optimized for search engine ranking. Focus on maintaining good SEO practices to improve this score. - Progressive Web App (PWA) Audit
Checks if your site adheres to Progressive Web App principles. Aim to build and enhance your site as a PWA for better capabilities and user experience.
Improving Your Magento Website's Lighthouse Score
Now that we have a clear understanding of the Lighthouse metrics let's explore practical tips to enhance your Magento front-end performance. All of the mentioned tips improve your front end to a certain extent, but to increase your score above 90, we advise you to check Aitoc Carbon.
- Implement page caching to improve server response time and optimize Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
- Optimize browser caching to ensure static files are properly cached and improve performance.
- Optimize fonts, images, and code to minimize unnecessary loading and improve content visibility. Our team will
- Utilize font preloading techniques to enhance the Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) performance.
- Leverage a content delivery network (CDN) to deliver your website's content quickly across different locations.
- Enable server-level compression to reduce file sizes and improve loading speed.
- Provide dimensions to all images and embeds to prevent layout shifts and enhance stability.
- Minimize unnecessary files and scripts that may hinder Time to Interactive (TTI) and Total Blocking Time (TBT).
- Optimize main thread work to enhance the Speed Index (SI) and overall page performance.
These 9 tips will make an impact change in your Magento/Adobe Commerce website. However, you have to understand that this is also ongoing work, and you will need to be checking it every two weeks to one month. And this is where Aitoc Carbon comes in help. As we mentioned above, the tips will be helpful but not enough to give your store the great performance we are aiming for. Let's check together what Aitoc Carbon is and how it can actually help you!
Introducing Aitoc Carbon: Your Solution for High Lighthouse Scores
Aitoc Carbon is a personalized service specifically designed for merchants seeking a Google Lighthouse score of 90+ for their Magento/Adobe Commerce websites. With Aitoc Carbon, you can improve your website's performance within a short time frame of 1-4 weeks without the need for extensive backend code changes. This service focuses on speed, conversion rate optimization, and improved user experience, allowing you to maximize your online business's potential. Aitoc Carbon is a comprehensive solution that takes into account every aspect. It essentially begins with a Hyvä, Breeze, or PWA front-end, but goes beyond that to encompass infrastructure, back-end performance, and various other elements.
Let's explore together what Aitoc Carbon does for your Magento/Adobe Commerce website:
- Speed at the core
Everything in Aitoc Carbon is built for speed. We get you 90+ scoring Google Lighthouse scores with absolute ease. - Uses your existing code
You don't need to rebuild your website. Your existing investment is protected. We accelerate what you have. And upgrade the themes when needed. - Quick implementation
Your existing website can be adapted in around 1-4 weeks. Our engineers take the existing front-end functionality and make it faster. - Minimal code changes
No major modifications to the back-end code are required. We will strive to maintain the stability of your existing back-end code as much as possible. - Maximise conversion rate
Research shows that a faster website improves your conversion rate. Aitoc Carbon helps you unlock that lost revenue. - Improve user experience
Make the front-end UX faster and more responsive. It will delight your customers and remove frustration. - Future proof
Easily adapt future developments into Aitoc Carbon to leverage the same performance improvements. - Not just for the speed!
Aitoc Carbon improves all the key metrics that Google measures, giving the best opportunity for higher rankings.
As you might have realized, improving your Google Lighthouse score is crucial for optimizing your Magento website's performance. By focusing on the metrics outlined in this article and following the tips provided, you can improve your score but can't bring it up from the red zone(20-40 score) to a perfectly green one(above 90). That is why we strongly advise using Aitoc Carbon, where a Google Lighthouse score above 90 is guaranteed! You can enhance the speed, accessibility, and user experience of your store, resulting in higher revenue.
Book a demo by visiting the Aitoc Carbon page or contact our team!
