Erwin Hofman’s Post

As my last code got stolen+abused, this will be the last time I'm sharing this code that is able to boost your #Lighthouse score. Here's the story: → this code actually works to get a 100% score → but I'm going to admit right away: this code was a joke → to mock those that were cheating their Lighthouse scores Sure, some were doing it deliberately and other agencies had no clue they were using apps/plugins that would cheat the test. By the way: Shopify already started to put a stop to such apps 🛑 But today: → I found out that an agency actually tried to implement my code into a website → to always show a perfect green score to their clients/site owners. 𝐖𝐡𝐲'𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐟𝐮𝐥? Is that actually harmful? Because #SEO & #CoreWebVitals isn't even using Lighthouse scores. Yes, you and I know this already. But website owners don't always know, that there are differences between field+lab data. So clients end up thinking that their agency did a great job when seeing a gamed Lighthouse score 😬 𝐅𝐮𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐜𝐭:  The webflow agency implementing this code didn't get it to work. But they forgot to remove it. And that's how another agency -taking over the client- discovered their attempt. If you're the agency in this story: feel free to reach out and I'll educate your developers in how to properly optimize your clients' websites for REAL users 😍

What a way to celebrate! 🎉 → Both me and Jordy Scholing reached our 1-year anniversary as Google Developer Experts (GDE) this month → Yesterday, performance.now() conference published the line-up, and I'm part of it! Images: → left: Jordy & me holding a cake, celebrating becoming a GDE a year ago → right: my talk during the performance.now pre-event in November 2023 So this year I'll be talking at the main event! Addressing the relatively new #INP metric, #LoAF API (just like my pre-event talk) and some cases. I won't be doing it alone though, as Karlijn Löwik (my other RUMvision colleague, and CEO) is joining me on stage 😍 Speaking at the performance.now() conference certainly is a big deal. As it's the biggest #pagespeed / #performance conference. Conveniently being held in Amsterdam (Nov 14 + 15). Early-bird ticket sales started yesterday! So maybe I see you there?

Only 1 out of many ends up asking me if I actually get to enjoy traveling for events too. The answer is: I definitely try to! This time: Berlin 🇩🇪 This Google event was about meeting people + community too next to absorbing insights. But traveling for events can be: → exhausting (although I've heard way more stressful itineraries compared to my recent ones) → coming with a carbon emission impact → costly in other ways So why not try to enjoy it while you're there and mitigate some of the above? I made sure I did some sightseeing before the new round of UEFA matches ⚽ But not the typical hotspots. Instead, I walked, traveled by train & U-bahn and took long breaks to let all the Google I/O info sink in and enjoy some time off! 😃 Images: 1️⃣ I got my hands on some Google merchandise (dino stickers for me and our little one) 2️⃣ Nikolaiviertel in Berlin (where you get to escape the busy city life) 3️⃣ biergarten in Tiergarten (the biggest in Berlin: Café am Neuen See) 4️⃣ square at Münzstraße 5️⃣ more abandoned biergarten (as a result of one of many heavy showers 😅 ) 6️⃣ trying to catch my trainride home again at Berlin's very busy central station

#GoogleIO #Connect is a wrap! This happened: → live audience (and spicy) questions (platform vs framework) during the sessions → meeting familiar and new Google Developer Experts → there was even a #SpeculationRules booth (occupied by Barry Pollard, Jeremy W. and Gilberto Cocchi) → nice indoor and outdoor settings for relaxing and eating (although pond + warm weather = increased humidity 😅) → they exhibited one of Lando Norris' former F1 cars 🤩 Looking forward to the next GDE edition and upcoming web #performance / #CoreWebVitals events! 🚀

Great start of the Google I/O days! And already ran into the #webperformance bunch at the pre-event. Awesome food-truck festival vibe + setting! Holzmarkt in Berlin was the pre-event location. And yes, when in Germany, a currywurst is mandatory 😄 Looking forward to what today will have in store! 🚀

Another travel: GRQ 🚅 BER to join other Google Developer Experts at Google I/O So no, I'm not joining the European Championship (also happening in Germany) ⚽ Although the Dutch soccer team could certainly use my support (given the 2-3 loss yesterday) 🙈 Instead, I'll be: → meeting up with other Googlers & Experts → attending #web & #performance related sessions and workshops → trying to spot RUMvision live in one of the many Google I/O slides → all while being 30°C 🫠 Let's hope air conditioning won't fail us in the train again 😅

I recently read you don't need to be afraid of "404 Not Found" errors. But you would want to fix these: 1️⃣ When it's a popular page (this one makes sense) 2️⃣ When it was meant to be a CSS, JS or image resource (often overlooked) Truth to be told: the post I read was about dealing with 404s from SEO/SERP perspective. But my number 2 can hurt your #SEO via other ways: #pagespeed → 𝐃𝐲𝐧𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐜 404 First of all: especially within #ecommerce, the TTFB isn't always great. So when linking to the wrong CSS, JS or IMG, the result won't be cached, leading to a dynamically generated 404... on every new request. → 𝐂𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐭𝐡 When it's a render blocking resource or downloaded at the same time as your LCP image, it will delay the download of those other resources. This will impact your FCP + LCP metrics (and thus impacting your #CoreWebVitals too). → 𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬 When linking to style.f8943h28.css but your file or dir-hash changed, it can first lead to a redirect before ending up as a 404. This would then make the delay + real #UX even worse. It's easy to forget about these. But hopefully you won't overlook them anymore after reading this post 🤓

Only a few minutes away from this free #pagespeed #ecommerce event organized by Shopware United. A direct link: https://lnkd.in/ehgQYj_X

You can do so much with HTML & CSS nowadays: → lazyloading → balancing text → sticky elements → web animation & form validation → UI: accordions, colorpickers, dialogs, datalists And even slideshows/image galleries on your homepage and product pages 😍 Best parts is that #HTML + #CSS over #JavaScript alternatives often are also better for: 🕷️ #crawlability ♿ #accessibility 🚀 #CoreWebVitals ❔ And maybe other advantages I'm currently forgetting about? Attached image was actually one of my slides during my last talk as we talked about Google's new INP metric.