Speedtests
Speed Test Tools
There are a number of tools available for testing the speed or performance of a website.
In the case of WordPress, these tools are a great way to measure the benefits of a caching plugin.
Anyone who follows my blog knows that I strongly recommend using a caching plugin.
But back to the speed measurement tools. There are quite a few of them—among the best known are:
- Google's own speed test: PageSpeed Insights
- GTMetrix
- GiftOfSpeed
After the analysis, recommendations for improving load times are provided immediately.
Last but not least: You can use the browser itself to measure the page's speed:
On a PC, you can open the Web Developer Tools in Chrome and Firefox by pressing F12. Here, you should first enable the "Disable Cache" option to prevent the page from being loaded from the browser cache. Now select “Network” (Chrome) or “Network Inspector” (Firefox) and reload the page.
At the very bottom, there are a few details, such as the number of requests, the amount of data transferred, and some information about the loading time.
These two points are particularly interesting here:
- DOMContentLoaded
- load/laden
These two metrics should improve significantly after activating the caching plugin. Put very simply, these two metrics indicate when the page has finished loading—that is, when the visitor can see the content. You can find more in-depth details in these search results.
Mixed Results
It’s normal for speed tests to yield different results. It’s also important to consider the location from which the test is being run. GTMetrix currently uses a server in Vancouver for its free tests.
It’s similar with the other tools; with a little luck, you might find a server in Europe, and with even more luck, a location in Germany. Please note that the number of tests is limited with the free tools. With GTMetrix, you can increase the limit slightly by creating a free account.
Only Google’s own tool has no known limitations on the number of tests, as far as I know. That’s why I primarily use PageSpeed Insights when making changes to my site.
But even here, the “Performance” results are subject to fluctuations.
For me, the real value lies in the optimization suggestions it provides—more on that below.
Time Investment vs. Benefits
It’s no problem at all to spend day and night running speed tests. You should always keep in mind that all these tools perform automated tests and are merely trying to simulate the user experience.
It’s certainly true that if the results are in the red zone, you should optimize your website. But I seriously doubt that visitors even notice whether the site currently has a Google Performance Index of 99 or 98.
As long as everything is literally in the green zone, I think everything is fine as far as speed tests are concerned.
Unless you make a living from the online store on your site—in which case speed is indeed a factor that can cause buyers to leave. Just do a quick search online—there are studies on what percentage of potential buyers leave the site at different load times.
For the casual hobbyist webmaster, it probably doesn’t matter whether the page loads in 300 or 440 ms.
Recommendations and Notes
Generally speaking, a graphics-heavy website takes longer to load than a page with just a banner image. Images in a gallery naturally load more slowly than a text-only page.
The key here is to strike a balance between an appealing visual design and a good user experience.
Sliders are the bane of speed tests. Anything related to sliders will drag your results down a bit. One example is the layer slider in the Enfold theme. It looks really great, but unfortunately it’s not great for page performance.
You yourselves are the best tool for measuring speed. Test your site using different browsers and devices. When conducting these tests, please make sure you are not logged into the WordPress backend. Virtually all caching plugins serve pages to logged-in users without caching.
You’re the best judge of whether the page loads without errors or whether you’ve gone overboard with the optimizations….
I've given up wasting an unnecessary amount of time on speed tests.
Comparative figures
Here are a few statistics from my homepage (as of March 2023).
GTMetrix gives me a solid B.
Google PageSpeed Insights: 98–99 on mobile and 99–100 on desktop.
As I said, the results are inconsistent, which is probably also due to the fact that I'm using a shared hosting plan.
The browser itself provides the following figures:
DOMContentLoaded: 112 ms
Load: 514 ms
The browser metrics, in particular, match the perceived “experience” when visiting my website—the page loads instantly.
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