How To Hack Your Google Lighthouse Scores In 2024

Programmer, Salma, creates a series of experiments to examine how Google Lighthouse calculates performance scores of websites. The article discusses how the assessment tool calculates its performance scores, and using this information, she explores ways to manipulate those scores in her favor. The article discusses several metrics that affects a site's performance like First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS), Speed Index (SI), and Total Blocking Time (TBT). The article doesn't support manipulating performance scores but underlines real user experience is beyond numerical speed. Finally, Salma created a terrible website that Google Lighthouse gave high scores, demonstrating the importance of real usability testing.