Chrome DevTools is a set of web developer tools built directly into the Google Chrome browser. DevTools can help you edit pages on-the-fly and diagnose problems quickly, which ultimately helps you build better websites, faster. As a digital marketing agency, it’s essential to understand the backend of technology to be able to provide better solutions, faster.
And improved site performance is essential for any brand to have better visibility, and to prepare better inbound marketing strategies.
How can you access these tools?
Here, we are going to discuss two tools which are on 5th and 8th tab from the left when we access the “inspect element” section of the webpage
Performance tool helps you to check load time of each element on your webpage. It helps to check runtime performance and load performance. Runtime performance is the performance of page when it is running and load performance refers to the performance of the page when it is loading. Both help to identify performance issues that affect speed and overall user experience.
This performance report shows frame by frame load time.
While running a performance tool, you will see load time taken by each element. You will encounter different terminologies on horizontal frames such as FP, FCP, LCP, FMP, DCL etc. Let’s have a look at each of these terms.
FP – First Paint
It is the time taken by first pixel when painted onto the webpage.
FCP – First Contentful Paint
It is a first content render on the webpage when user browses the website.
LCP – Largest Contentful Paint
It measures the loading performance of a website. LCP means time taken by largest element on the website to load. Ideal LCP score should not be more than 2.5 seconds.
FMP – First Meaningful Paint
As the name suggests, First Meaningful Paint means the time taken to provide the first meaningful information to users.
DCL – DOM Content Loaded
It measures when the HTML document on a webpage is loaded and parsed.
An Audit tab gives you an overview of the metrics that improves performance, accessibility, SEO and other best practices areas. It is also known as Google lighthouse report.
This is what the Lighthouse pane looks like (see below). You can check scores of the above-mentioned metrics for your website. They give scores for both the devices i.e. mobile as well as desktop. You can also check the performance score for the Progressive Web App if you have it.
To run this tool, you have to right click on the webpage you want to test. Then, click on “Inspect Element”. It opens up a pane where you will see this Lighthouse tab. After clicking on a “Generate Report”, it will provide the score.
With Lighthouse reports, you may get these recommendations that can help you to improve site speed –
Bonus: Alternative to Google Chrome Lighthouse tool is web.dev
Hope running these easy tests will help improve your site speed and performance. If you need any assistance to audit your website, contact Liqvd Asia tech and SEO support here!
Visit our website homepage to add your business information with a ‘get in touch’ form in a footer and get site performance tips straight to your inbox.
