When it comes to user experience, nothing impacts search engine ranking and on-site visitor engagement more than website performance. Google Lighthouse is a free, open-source tool that evaluates the attributes of web applications across multiple sections, including performance (i.e., site speed), accessibility, SEO, and additional sections that represent best practices. For brands seeking improved digital positioning and subsequent user experience, becoming accustomed to Google Lighthouse scores and how to raise those scores is advantageous.
Standard CMS solutions cap ultimate performance for most users and sites not because the dev team won’t be able to achieve it but because of the themes and plugins that are added but never used (or visible) and rendering issues from server-side interaction. Yet a Headless CMS avoids these problems with a relatively simple content management system that is separate from the front-end renderers, this means that developers are no longer limited to CMS possibilities. This write-up will explore how a Headless CMS improves a Lighthouse performance score based on faster loading, decreased render-blocking resources, and enhanced caching capabilities.
Faster Page Loading with Headless CMS
Page speed is a vital component of the Lighthouse performance scores, a component that impacts both UX and SEO. Unfortunately, most CMSs rely on an old-school, cookie-cutter approach: one gigantic style sheet to render on the server side, needed for every page request, and subsequent database queries that hinder performance. Because a Headless CMS removes the connection between content and the rendering layer, developers can build whatever front-end framework they desire Next.js, Gatsby, Nuxt.js capable of Static Site Generation (SSG) and server-side rendering (SSR). SSG and SSR result in faster loading websites since pages are pre-rendered and served only through a content delivery network (CDN). Thus, as a Headless CMS no longer renders content through a traditional CMS natively, loading times improve drastically because it is no longer doing extra work, which helps boost Lighthouse scores.
Reducing Render-Blocking Resources for Improved Performance
Why choose headless CMS over WordPress for better performance? Because traditional CMS platforms like WordPress often have unnecessary resources loaded upfront, causing render-blocking and negatively impacting performance scores. One of the biggest offenders for low Lighthouse performance scores is render-blocking resources. I’m referring to large CSS files, unattached JS libraries, and too many third-party scripts that are unnecessary. Most CMSs have a lot rendered on the initial load, which means that before paint can happen, more needs to be rendered; thus, performance scores suffer. Because a Headless CMS provides developers with full access to the front end, developers can optimize for asset delivery.
Lazy loading specific assets, deferring CSS that isn’t needed for first paint, and asynchronously loading scripts required at a later time? The renderer need only worry about what’s rendered on the first paint. Rendering something that doesn’t need rendering if it’s rendered, for example, in non-render-blocking percentages when it needs to be, however, is not only great for Lighthouse scores but great for UX.
Optimized Image and Media Handling for Better Scores
Images and media files are important facets of web content aside from visual enhancement; however, they can bog down page loading speed. For example, many content management systems (CMS) generate non-optimized image files based on the functioning of yesteryear and today. In addition, they fail to consider the compressing options that may come to light over time. Therefore, loading is delayed and Lighthouse scores are not up to par.
Image optimization can be baked into the front-end framework with a Headless CMS. WebP formatting, responsive images, and lazy loading can all be implemented to reduce media render times while still providing quality. In addition, a Headless CMS can connect to cloud image services to ensure all assets are automatically compressed and resized in real time, regardless of the device used. These elements help facilitate good Lighthouse scores with improvements to LCP and FCP.
Leveraging CDNs for Faster Content Delivery
Latency is reduced with CDNs and geographically geo-located sources for content distribution, which contribute to better site performance. Therefore, a content management system (CMS) is a more centralized solution because if someone is across the globe from where the server is, their load times will be dependent upon that distance. A Headless CMS delivers content via APIs. Thus, developers can hook up any CDN of their choice to Cloudflare, Fastly, AWS CloudFront, etc.
These CDNs cache content at various edge locations so that pinging back to the origin server isn’t always necessary, thus improving TTFB. Since TTFB is a performance metric measured by Lighthouse in determining site performance, any improvement to TTFB from a developer or marketer’s standpoint will be beneficial to average Lighthouse scores. Thus, with a Headless CMS and then a CDN, all users load faster, no matter where they are in the world.
Better SEO Performance with Headless CMS
SEO makes up a large portion of Lighthouse scoring; for example, structured data/metadata and mobile friendliness are elements that impact SEO but are in the score based on things you can change. Most CMSs either overload you with unnecessary code bloat or don’t focus on giving you the necessary code changes needed to make this an SEO-focused task.
With a Headless CMS, the responsibility for SEO falls to the developer’s clean HTML, schema markup, and responsive metadata are all in their control.
In addition, utilizing different frameworks, Next.js or Gatsby renders pages, structured data, and routing applications that promote better SEO. A Headless CMS also gives greater access to canonical URLs, hreflang tags, and XML sitemaps to ensure that search engines index content properly. Ultimately, this translates to higher Lighthouse scores and improved positioning in search.
Improving Accessibility for a Higher Lighthouse Score
Accessibility factors into Lighthouse performance scoring because it’s necessary to ensure a website can be used properly by disabled people. Unfortunately, many legacy CMS platforms are inaccessible out of the box, and with limited customization options for compliance, this means low scores.
A Headless CMS provides developers with a better chance to design the site with accessibility best practices and WCAG compliance in mind. For instance, there are better heading hierarchies (more h2s and h3s), alt image tags, ARIA attributes, keyboard navigable features, etc. Therefore, making accessibility adjustments on the front end makes it easier for companies to gain increased Lighthouse scores and give all users a fluid experience.
Future-Proofing Website Performance with Headless CMS
The online experience is evolving before our eyes with new developments in the web, web technologies, new standards of what performance should be, new levels of expected user interaction and many businesses are lagging behind. The legacy CMS weighs them down with antiquated options for upgrades that fail to provide easy solutions down the road. A Headless CMS is future-proof because it promotes modular, API-driven content management that can integrate with any new tools developed down the line. Concerning new standards of performance, brands can always improve their frontend experience since they’re not tied to the limitations of what a CMS might let them do. New frameworks, PWAs, and even AI for content customization necessitate responsive sites, and a Headless CMS will ensure sites stay responsive and effective.
Enhancing Core Web Vitals with Headless CMS
The Core Web Vitals form a large part of the Lighthouse performance scoring and therefore affect where a site ranks on a search engine. For instance, a low loading score (LCP) indicates it takes way too long to load; a low interactivity score (FID) means it takes too long to acknowledge user input; a low visual stability score (CLS) indicates that it jumps around while loading. These frustrations hinder a person’s ability to interact with the website. Then, with a content management system that disregards such performance needlessly complicated scripts, poorly loading assets, and inefficient content delivery it gets even worse.
Many businesses can improve their Core Web Vitals with a Headless CMS. This is because it helps with loading content quicker, no extra scripts, and better loading response times from servers. For instance, developers can server-side render or statically site generate to prerender the content, which means every page loads quickly and is visually stable. In addition, a Headless CMS gives businesses control over when JavaScript gets executed, when certain third-party integrations run, when certain features get cached, and the totality of all these things results in much higher Lighthouse scores and UX victories.
Reducing Time to First Byte (TTFB) with Headless CMS
Time to First Byte (TTFB) measures how long it takes a server to respond to a request. The longer the TTFB, the worse it is, but lower TTFB results are good since they factor into page load times and Lighthouse scores. However, because of database calls and the time it takes to render on the backend, and extra steps needed to serve rendered pages, CMS sites tend to have higher TTFB. This equals a higher TTFB and a lower user experience and SEO results.
Since a Headless CMS serves content through APIs instead of serving it server-side like at a slower default render using a CDN that caches API requests plus edge computing can drastically reduce TTFB times. In addition, a Headless CMS with static site generators has most pages pre-rendered as well and ready to go. Thus, the site has a faster TTFB, loads quicker, has a better Lighthouse score, and has much smoother performance.
Minimizing Unused JavaScript for Faster Performance
Excessive JavaScript execution, resulting in load latencies and unsuccessful interactivity thresholds, is one of the biggest issues that keep Lighthouse performance scores from falling in line. For instance, out-of-the-box CMS platforms generate bulky themes, stock plugins not utilized on every site, and JavaScript that fails to perform under rendered efficiency as its native counterparts, all of which delay rendering time and decrease efficiency. A Headless CMS puts developers in charge of frontend optimizations. Developers need never be concerned with bloated JavaScript in fact, they needn’t be concerned with any other scripts that are unnecessarily bloated.
Where, for example, a company chooses to use Next.js or Vue.js to build out its framework, it can now rely upon code-splitting, lazy loading, and tree shaking to avoid excess. Everything can run that’s needed and needed alone. No excess JavaScript bloat, speedier page renderings, and better Lighthouse scores from better rendered and loaded resources. Utilizing these strategies will enable companies to maintain fast, fluid, and quality web experiences for themselves and their marketplace positioning needs, as well as for the ever-evolving expectations of both audiences gaining rank and search engines.
Conclusion
Lighthouse performance scores are crucial for speed, SEO, accessibility, and adherence to best practices. Unfortunately, however, many legacy CMS platforms run on antiquated architecture, excessive code bloat, and few performance adjustment opportunities meaning they’ll be impossible to score. But with a Headless CMS, brands have the power to control performance on the front end; faster page load times, render-blocking resources, image compression, CDN support for static assets, and increased accessibility are all possible. Translation? Better Lighthouse performance scores and the opportunity to keep traffic, sound UI/UX, and SEO.
Technology is only going to expand and evolve. Thus, organizations that find the performance benefits of a Headless CMS will have the competitive edge and offer their end users quick, efficient, and interactive digital experiences.
