🚀 SEO-Focused Lighthouse Auditor for Apify

A powerful SEO agency-optimized Apify actor that runs comprehensive Google Lighthouse audits with specialized features for digital marketing agencies, SEO professionals, and web developers.

Unlike standard Lighthouse runners, this actor provides actionable, batch-ready audit data specifically designed for SEO agency workflows.

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🌟 What Makes This Special?

✅ Indexability Snapshot

Get instant "Can Google index this page?" answers:

• HTTP status code validation
• robots.txt validation
• Meta robots tag analysis
• Canonical URL status
• Clear indexability flag with reasons

📝 On-Page SEO Analysis

Essential SEO metrics at a glance:

• Title tag presence and length
• Meta description status and length
• Canonical URL analysis
• Language detection

⚡ Core Web Vitals with Pass/Fail Status

Clear performance indicators with Google's thresholds:

• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint): ✅ Pass / ⚠️ Needs Improvement / ❌ Fail
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift): ✅ Pass / ⚠️ Needs Improvement / ❌ Fail
• TBT (Total Blocking Time): ✅ Pass / ⚠️ Needs Improvement / ❌ Fail
• FCP (First Contentful Paint): ✅ Pass / ⚠️ Needs Improvement / ❌ Fail

🎯 Normalized Issues Array

All Lighthouse audits transformed into agency-friendly format:

• Category: SEO, On-page, Performance, Accessibility, Security, Best Practices
• Severity: High, Medium, Low
• Impact: Clear business impact explanation
• Recommended Action: Copy-paste ready fix instructions

📊 SEO Agency Summary

Executive summary perfect for client reports:

• One-line headline assessment
• Top 5 SEO risks prioritized
• Up to 8 suggested tickets ready for Jira/Asana/Monday
• Overall health indicators
• Priority-based recommendations

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🎯 Perfect For

• SEO Agencies: Audit 10-100+ client websites efficiently
• Technical SEO Audits: Quick batch checks for indexability issues
• Client Reports: Generate professional, branded reports
• Project Managers: Get clear, prioritized tickets instantly
• Web Developers: Understand exactly what to fix first

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🚀 Quick Start

1. Basic Single URL Audit

Input:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "categories": ["performance", "accessibility", "seo"],
  "device": "desktop"
}

Click "Start" and wait 30-90 seconds for the audit to complete.

2. After the Run Completes

You'll have 3 types of reports available:

📄 Option A: Beautiful HTML Report (Recommended for Viewing)

How to access:

1. Go to your completed actor run
2. Click the "Storage" tab at the top
3. Find "Key-value store" section and click it
4. You'll see report.html in the list
5. Click "View" to open it in your browser

Or get the direct link:

1. Go to the "Dataset" tab
2. Switch to "JSON" view
3. Look for the reports field:

{
  "reports": {
    "htmlReport": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/ABC123/records/report.html",
    "seoReport": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/ABC123/records/SEO_REPORT"
  }
}

4. Copy the htmlReport URL and open it in your browser

What you'll see:

• 🎨 Beautiful, client-ready report
• 📊 SEO Agency Summary with health indicators
• ⚡ Core Web Vitals with pass/fail badges
• 🚨 Top SEO Risks highlighted
• 🎫 Suggested Tickets ready for project management tools
• 📈 Performance metrics and recommendations

📊 Option B: Structured JSON Data (For Analysis/Integration)

How to access:

1. Click the "Dataset" tab
2. Choose view format:
   • Table view: Browse data in table format
   • JSON view: See complete JSON structure
3. Export options:
   • CSV: For Excel/spreadsheet analysis
   • JSON: For programming/automation
   • Excel: Direct Excel format

Perfect for:

• Filtering issues by severity
• Comparing multiple URLs
• Building dashboards
• Automating workflows

🔍 Option C: SEO-Focused JSON (Lightweight)

How to access:

1. Go to Storage tab
2. Click Key-value store
3. Click "View" on SEO_REPORT

Contains only:

• Scores
• Indexability data
• On-page SEO data
• Core Web Vitals
• Issues array
• SEO summary

Perfect for dashboards and integrations!

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📋 Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
url	String	Yes	-	Full URL to audit (must include https://)
categories	Array	No	All 4	Lighthouse categories: performance, accessibility, seo, best-practices
device	String	No	desktop	Device emulation: desktop or mobile
throttling	Boolean	No	false	Enable network/CPU throttling (slower but more realistic)

Input Examples

Desktop audit with all categories:

{
  "url": "https://example.com"
}

Mobile audit, SEO and Performance only:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "categories": ["seo", "performance"],
  "device": "mobile"
}

Fast audit without throttling:

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "categories": ["seo"],
  "device": "desktop",
  "throttling": false
}

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📤 Output Structure

Main Dataset Output (JSON)

{
  "url": "https://example.com",
  "fetchTime": "2024-11-23T10:30:00.000Z",
  
  "scores": {
    "performance": 0.89,
    "accessibility": 0.95,
    "seo": 0.92,
    "bestPractices": 0.87,
    "overall": 0.91
  },
  
  "coreWebVitalsLab": {
    "lcpMs": 1850,
    "cls": 0.05,
    "tbtMs": 180,
    "fcpMs": 1200,
    "lcpStatus": "pass",
    "clsStatus": "pass",
    "tbtStatus": "pass",
    "fcpStatus": "pass"
  },
  
  "indexability": {
    "httpStatus": 200,
    "isIndexable": true,
    "reasons": [],
    "metaRobots": "index,follow",
    "robotsTxtStatus": "valid",
    "canonicalUrl": "https://example.com/",
    "canonicalStatus": "self-referencing"
  },
  
  "onPage": {
    "title": "Example Website - Best Products",
    "titleLength": 32,
    "hasMetaDescription": true,
    "metaDescription": "Shop the best products...",
    "metaDescriptionLength": 145
  },
  
  "issues": [
    {
      "id": "total-blocking-time",
      "title": "High Total Blocking Time",
      "category": "Performance",
      "severity": "high",
      "status": "fail",
      "impact": "Core Web Vitals / interactivity",
      "recommendedAction": "Reduce or defer heavy JavaScript. Break up long tasks."
    }
  ],
  
  "seoAgencySummary": {
    "headline": "✅ Strong SEO foundation with minor optimization opportunities",
    "topSeoRisks": [
      "⚠️ robots.txt is invalid and may confuse crawlers"
    ],
    "suggestedTickets": [
      {
        "priority": "High",
        "title": "Fix robots.txt",
        "description": "Ensure robots.txt returns valid directives"
      }
    ],
    "overallHealth": {
      "seoScore": 92,
      "performanceScore": 89,
      "isIndexable": true,
      "hasMetaDescription": true,
      "coreWebVitalsPass": true
    }
  },
  
  "reports": {
    "htmlReport": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/ABC123/records/report.html",
    "seoReport": "https://api.apify.com/v2/key-value-stores/ABC123/records/SEO_REPORT",
    "note": "Open these URLs to view the reports"
  }
}

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🎨 HTML Report Features

The generated HTML report includes:

1. SEO Agency Summary Section

• Purple/pink gradient header
• Executive headline
• 5 health indicator cards:
  • Indexable status (✅/❌)
  • SEO Score (0-100)
  • Performance Score (0-100)
  • Meta Description status (✅/❌)
  • Core Web Vitals status (✅/❌)

2. Quick Stats Cards

• Indexability with visual indicator
• HTTP Status code
• Meta Description presence
• Title tag length

3. Core Web Vitals Section

• 4 metric cards with values
• Color-coded pass/fail/needs-improvement badges
• Target thresholds shown
• Easy to understand at a glance

4. Top SEO Risks

• Up to 5 critical issues highlighted
• Orange warning boxes
• Emoji indicators for quick scanning
• Prioritized by impact

5. Suggested Tickets for Project Management

• Ready-to-copy tickets for Jira/Asana
• Priority badges (Critical/High/Medium/Low)
• Specific action descriptions
• Can be copied directly into PM tools

6. Overall Performance Score

• Large score circle with color coding
• Interpretation text
• Overall assessment

7. Category Breakdown

• Individual scores for each Lighthouse category
• Color-coded borders
• Easy comparison

8. Performance Metrics Table

• All Core Web Vitals metrics
• Current values vs. target values
• Clean table format

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💡 Common Use Cases

Use Case 1: Client Audit Report

Workflow:

1. Run actor with client's URL
2. Get the HTML report URL from Dataset → reports.htmlReport
3. Send URL to client: "View your audit: [link]"
4. Client sees beautiful, professional report

Use Case 2: Batch Website Audits

Workflow:

1. Run actor multiple times with different URLs (or use Apify's batch features)
2. Go to Dataset → Export to CSV
3. Open in Excel/Google Sheets
4. Filter by:
   • indexability.isIndexable = false (not indexable sites)
   • issues[severity] = "high" (critical issues)
   • coreWebVitalsLab.lcpStatus = "fail" (poor performance)

Use Case 3: Weekly Monitoring

Workflow:

1. Schedule actor to run weekly (Apify Schedules)
2. Set up webhook to notify your team
3. Compare scores over time
4. Track improvements

Use Case 4: Issue Prioritization

Workflow:

1. Run audit
2. Export Dataset to JSON
3. Filter issues by severity:

const criticalIssues = data.issues.filter(i => i.severity === 'high');

4. Create tickets in your PM tool

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🔥 Pro Tips

Tip 1: Quick Indexability Check

// From Dataset JSON:
if (!result.indexability.isIndexable) {
  console.log("🚨 NOT INDEXABLE:", result.indexability.reasons);
}

Tip 2: Core Web Vitals Status

// Check if all vitals pass:
const { coreWebVitalsLab } = result;
const allPass = 
  coreWebVitalsLab.lcpStatus === 'pass' && 
  coreWebVitalsLab.clsStatus === 'pass' && 
  coreWebVitalsLab.tbtStatus === 'pass';

Tip 3: Get Only High-Severity Issues

// Filter critical issues:
const urgent = result.issues.filter(i => i.severity === 'high');
console.log(`${urgent.length} critical issues found`);

Tip 4: Share Reports Easily

The HTML report URL is permanent (until storage expires on free tier):

• Bookmark it
• Share via email
• Embed in Notion/Confluence
• Add to project management tools

Tip 5: Export for Spreadsheet Analysis

1. Run audits on multiple URLs
2. Export Dataset to CSV
3. Use Excel pivot tables to analyze:
   • Average scores by category
   • Most common issues
   • Sites needing attention

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🎯 Understanding the Scores

Performance Score (0-100)

• 90-100: Excellent performance
• 50-89: Needs improvement
• 0-49: Poor performance

SEO Score (0-100)

• 90-100: SEO best practices followed
• 80-89: Good, minor improvements needed
• 0-79: Significant SEO issues

Core Web Vitals Thresholds

Metric	Good (Pass)	Needs Improvement	Poor (Fail)
LCP	< 2.5s	2.5s - 4.0s	> 4.0s
CLS	< 0.1	0.1 - 0.25	> 0.25
TBT	< 200ms	200ms - 600ms	> 600ms
FCP	< 1.8s	1.8s - 3.0s	> 3.0s

Issue Severity Levels

• High: Critical issues affecting SEO/performance, fix immediately
• Medium: Important issues, should be fixed soon
• Low: Minor optimizations, fix when possible

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📊 Comparing with Standard Lighthouse

Feature	Standard Lighthouse	This Actor
Performance Score	✅	✅
SEO Score	✅	✅
Indexability Check	❌	✅
Meta Description Analysis	⚠️ Basic	✅ Detailed
Core Web Vitals Pass/Fail	⚠️ Just numbers	✅ Clear status
Issue Categorization	❌	✅ 6 categories
Severity Classification	❌	✅ High/Med/Low
Recommended Actions	⚠️ Generic	✅ Specific
Executive Summary	❌	✅ SEO-focused
Ready-to-Use Tickets	❌	✅ For Jira/Asana
Beautiful HTML Report	⚠️ Technical	✅ Client-ready
Batch-Friendly Output	⚠️	✅ CSV export

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🐛 Troubleshooting

"Cannot find HTML report"

Solution:

1. Make sure actor finished successfully (check Log tab for "✅ HTML report saved")
2. Look in Storage → Key-value store → report.html
3. Or get URL from Dataset → reports.htmlReport field

"Report URL returns 404"

Solution:

• Key-Value Store may have expired (7-day limit on free tier)
• Upgrade to paid tier for longer retention
• Download important reports before they expire

"Very slow audit (timeouts)"

Solution:

{
  "url": "https://very-slow-site.com",
  "throttling": false,
  "categories": ["seo"]  // Audit only SEO to speed up
}

"Missing some SEO data"

Note: Some data like H1 tags and word count require custom extraction not available in standard Lighthouse. The actor provides what Lighthouse exposes.

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📝 Best Practices

For Single Site Audits

1. Run with all categories for comprehensive analysis
2. Use desktop emulation first, then mobile
3. Download HTML report and share with stakeholders
4. Focus on high-severity issues first

For Batch Audits

1. Run during off-hours to avoid rate limits
2. Export Dataset to CSV for bulk analysis
3. Filter by indexability status first
4. Use severity to prioritize fixes across all sites

For Client Reporting

1. Use the HTML report URL (looks professional)
2. Include the SEO Agency Summary in your cover email
3. Highlight top 3 priorities from Suggested Tickets
4. Set up monthly scheduled runs to track progress

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🚀 Advanced Usage

Via Apify API

const { ApifyClient } = require('apify-client');

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: 'YOUR_API_TOKEN' });

// Run the actor
const run = await client.actor('YOUR_ACTOR_ID').call({
    url: 'https://example.com',
    categories: ['performance', 'seo']
});

// Get the dataset
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
const result = items[0];

// Access reports
console.log('HTML Report:', result.reports.htmlReport);
console.log('SEO Score:', result.scores.seo);
console.log('Indexable:', result.indexability.isIndexable);

// Get critical issues
const critical = result.issues.filter(i => i.severity === 'high');
console.log(`${critical.length} critical issues found`);

Schedule Weekly Audits

1. Go to Schedules in Apify Console
2. Create new schedule
3. Set to run weekly
4. Add webhook to notify your team
5. Monitor trends over time

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💾 Storage & Pricing

Free Tier

• Key-Value Store: 7 days retention
• Dataset: 7 days retention
• After 7 days, reports are deleted

Paid Tiers

• Indefinite retention available
• Larger storage quotas
• More concurrent runs

Tip: Download important reports within 7 days on free tier!

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🙏 Support

Getting Help

• Check the Log tab for error messages
• Review this README for common solutions
• Contact Apify support: support@apify.com

Feature Requests

Have ideas for improvements? Let us know!

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📜 License

MIT License - Free to use in commercial and personal projects.

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🎓 Summary

This actor gives you:

✅ Beautiful HTML reports (Storage → Key-value store → report.html)
✅ Structured JSON data (Dataset tab → Export)
✅ SEO-focused insights (Indexability, on-page SEO, Core Web Vitals)
✅ Actionable tickets (Ready for Jira/Asana)
✅ Agency-ready output (Client-presentable reports)
✅ Batch-friendly (CSV export for multiple sites)

Start auditing smarter today! 🚀

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Questions? Check the troubleshooting section above or contact support.