At the 2018 Chrome Developer Summit Google announced a new tool, Web.Dev,
an online website auditing tool.
The online tool executes the Chrome
Lighthouse tests against your web page. Right now it is not clear what constraints are used to run the new
online test.
Is it a mobile viewport or desktop?
Is the network high speed or 3G?
These are just some of the constraints that make a difference.
Based on my quick analysis the site is mobile over a 3G simulation. This should be a reasonable
simulation of a worst-case scenario. I always like testing against tough constraints because they really expose a
page\’s weak spots that may otherwise go unnoticed.
Right now, the site is in a \’beta\’ state. And trust me, it may look good, but it is very limited in what it reports.
For now, I still recommend using a combination of Lighthouse from Chrome\’s developer tools (F12) and the node module. You will get a much more detailed report.
You can click a link above your score to view the report. It is a trimmed down version of what you get in the
Lighthouse tool. You can also download the raw report and import it into a viewer.
Comparing to WebHint
Last year the Microsoft Edge team released WebHint (formally called SonarWhal) a similar
tool. The Microsoft tool is similar as it is also available as a node module you can automate your testing with. WebHint.io currently provides a more detailed
online report and is much more technical.
I suspect Google will eventually make Web.dev report more complete, my guess is they are gathering telemetry to
determine what to visually surface to reach the bulk of potential users.
I like the convenience of these online auditing tools. But right now web.dev is rather limited.
SEO Implications
I found it rather humorous to see how the SEO/marketing world reacted to the web.dev announcement. It seemed to
ruffle some feathers because it has a group of tests under the category or SEO.
The test it performs are rather simple. I think the SEO professionals are worried clients will assume these limited
test points as a complete set of items to measure for an SEO audit. They could potentially use this \’weak\’ set of
tests to cause unnecessary friction with the search engine optimization professional.
Barry Swartz did a Twitter Poll asking is Google should show SEO Scores or not.
On the SEO 101 podcast hosts Ross Dunn and
John Carcutt covered the new online
tool and made some good points.
But let\’s be honest, the average online business stakeholder won\’t come across web.dev, at least for a while. And if
they do it should spur more demand for professional SEO services. It may also cause them to seek out more knowledge
about the topic.
I also think Google has made it clear the \’SEO\’ component is a very high level and first pass at \’SEO\’. It only
tests for some basic on page aspects that can affect your ability to earn organic placements.
The Lighthouse SEO test for 11 items with 2 recommended manual items to check:
These are common \’quick check\’ items I look for when I do an SEO audit. Most quality
SEO professionals will look at those tests as very high level because each one has more depth that needs to be
checked. Things like how long is your Title value, is your primary keyword included? Does that value encourage
clicks, etc?
The manual check items are:
While the last two items can be tested with automated tools, it is not currently included in Lighthouse.
Here is why I like about these tests, they cover simple items almost anyone can understand and correct, at least at
a high level.
Why?
Google crawls billions and billions of pages every month. They collect massive amounts of data and see common
trends. Even though most sites are created using a content management system (CMS) or other platform these
important items are often omitted or done incorrectly?
Trust me there are still millions of websites and pages out there using Flash, even though it has completely been
deprecated.
More to Web.dev Than a Site Audit
If all you see on web.dev is the online auditing tool then you are missing some valuable content in the \’Learn\’
section. Currently there are 6 categories of content:
Each one of these topic areas takes you to additional topics with more detailed information. The articles included
are what I would call 101 or introductory level content, but something everyone can read and get a general
understanding of the concept covered.
If you are an expert in service workers, like me, you may find the content too simple, but you need to realize there
are very few experts in some of these important areas. The content is designed to reach the masses, that have
little to no knowledge of these topics. Google is trying to educate as many as possible about common best practices
and to do that they need to make the complex concepts approachable.
The truth about web.dev, webhint.io, Lighthouse and other website technical auditing tools is they are all SEO
tools. They are designed to highlight a web page\’s weaknesses. If you address these weaknesses your pages will earn
better rankings and a higher level of user satisfaction.
I think SEO professionals have overreacted and focused only on a small portion of the web.dev audit because it is
labeled SEO. They should look at everything the tool measures.
The new web.dev site is a tool, a simple tool at this point. It is not designed to be a thorough evaluation of any
web page or site, especially as it pertains to SEO. It is a high-level tool designed to highlight common mistakes
many sites are making so the owners can take some action.
If you want a more complete SEO audit please contact us and we can perform a more
professional SEO audit that covers lots of on page, technical aspects of your site,
your current search profile as well as your competition鈥檚 strengths and weaknesses.
This content was originally published here.