> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.loadforge.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Lighthouse Performance

> Comprehensive technical performance analysis with Google Lighthouse

LoadForge integrates Google Lighthouse to provide comprehensive technical performance analysis for your website. This automated tool evaluates your site across four key dimensions: Performance, Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO.

## About Lighthouse

Google Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It performs audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO, and more. LoadForge automatically runs Lighthouse audits on your site to provide actionable insights.

<Frame caption="Lighthouse Performance Dashboard">
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/loadforge/-JPjrj7GdlQs4xIV/images/lighthouse-dashboard.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=-JPjrj7GdlQs4xIV&q=85&s=4cfa99a26f877349a27470fef16b7a7c" alt="Lighthouse Performance Dashboard" width="2854" height="1842" data-path="images/lighthouse-dashboard.png" />
</Frame>

## Key Dimensions

### Performance Score

The Performance score reflects how quickly your page loads and becomes interactive for users.

Key metrics include:

* **First Contentful Paint**: Time until the first content is displayed
* **Speed Index**: How quickly content is visually displayed
* **Largest Contentful Paint**: Time until the largest content element is visible
* **Time to Interactive**: When the page becomes fully interactive
* **Total Blocking Time**: Sum of time periods blocking user interaction
* **Cumulative Layout Shift**: Unexpected layout shifts during page load

### Accessibility Score

The Accessibility score measures how accessible your website is to users with disabilities.

Key aspects evaluated:

* **Color contrast**: Ensuring text is readable against backgrounds
* **ARIA attributes**: Proper implementation of accessibility attributes
* **Keyboard navigation**: Ability to navigate using only a keyboard
* **Alt text**: Presence of alternative text for images
* **Heading structure**: Logical organization of content

### Best Practices Score

The Best Practices score evaluates your site's adherence to modern web development standards.

Areas assessed include:

* **HTTPS usage**: Secure connection implementation
* **Browser errors**: Console error detection
* **Image aspect ratios**: Proper image display
* **Deprecated APIs**: Use of outdated web technologies
* **User-friendly features**: Implementation of expected behaviors

### SEO Score

The SEO score measures how well your site is optimized for search engine results.

Factors considered:

* **Meta tags**: Proper implementation of title and description
* **Crawlability**: Whether search engines can properly index your content
* **Mobile-friendly**: Adaptation to mobile devices
* **Structured data**: Implementation of schema markup
* **Link quality**: Proper functioning of internal and external links

## Sub-Page Analysis

LoadForge doesn't just analyze your homepage—it evaluates key sub-pages across your site to provide a comprehensive view of performance across different sections:

* **Landing pages**: Critical for first impressions and conversions
* **Product pages**: Essential for e-commerce sites
* **Blog posts**: Important for content marketing
* **Contact/form pages**: Critical for user engagement

<Frame caption="Sub-Page Performance Comparison">
  <img src="https://mintlify.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/loadforge/images/lighthouse-subpages.png" alt="Sub-Page Performance Comparison" />
</Frame>

## Historical Tracking

LoadForge stores Lighthouse results over time, allowing you to:

* Track performance improvements after optimization efforts
* Identify regressions after site updates
* Monitor the impact of content or design changes
* Establish performance benchmarks for your site

## Actionable Recommendations

For each dimension, LoadForge provides specific, actionable recommendations to improve your scores:

<Accordion title="Performance Recommendations">
  * Optimize images and compress assets
  * Implement lazy loading for off-screen content
  * Minimize render-blocking resources
  * Reduce JavaScript execution time
  * Implement proper caching strategies
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Accessibility Recommendations">
  * Improve color contrast ratios
  * Add proper ARIA labels
  * Ensure keyboard navigability
  * Provide alternative text for images
  * Structure headings logically
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="Best Practices Recommendations">
  * Secure site with HTTPS
  * Fix browser console errors
  * Update deprecated APIs
  * Optimize image display
  * Implement expected user behaviors
</Accordion>

<Accordion title="SEO Recommendations">
  * Optimize meta tags
  * Ensure mobile-friendliness
  * Implement structured data
  * Fix crawlability issues
  * Optimize internal linking
</Accordion>

## Impact on LoadForge Score

Lighthouse metrics account for **30%** of your overall [LoadForge Score](/performance/loadforge-score), making them a critical component of your site's performance rating.

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Core Web Vitals" icon="gauge-high" href="/performance/crux-metrics">
    Learn about real user experience metrics
  </Card>

  <Card title="Response Times" icon="bolt" href="/performance/response-times">
    Discover server response and uptime monitoring
  </Card>
</CardGroup>