The Complete Guide for using WebPageTest (and understanding the results) (r) (r)

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Every website must run as quick as is possible. Achieving a high-quality website's performance is to remain on top of your game throughout every all day. It means constantly monitoring your site's performance, changing it to make improvements while also ensuring each page offers the best user experience.

In this post this article will be a detailed examination of WebPageTest and ways to benefit from this program. In addition, we'll show you how you can run tests, and analyze your results. We'll review the pros and cons using the software and also discuss costs. We'll get started!

What exactly is WebPageTest?

WebPageTest is a powerful open-source software program designed for webmasters and owners of websites to assess and improve their sites' performance:

The report offers a thorough review of load times along with the speed of rendering and network usage. You'll also get a detailed study of every page's components that allows you to pinpoint weak points and bottlenecks.

The service was introduced in 2008 and has been around since then. WebPageTest is among the most popular performance-testing services for websites. It was initially functioned as an internal tool for testing within AOL (yes it's very old).

Soon afterwards, WebPageTest was released under an open-source license. In 2011, the service's website was launched.

WebPageTest's primary features are:

• Simulated tests of various regions around the world
• Analyzing rendering of web pages along with loading methods such as waterfall charts and filmstrips

There is a way to test your knowledge with WebPageTest at no cost. WebPageTest offers a cost-free tier that enables you to run tests hundreds of times each month. You can also get results in detail.

Why should you use WebPageTest

There are several kindsof internet performance tools that are available. Most of them are totally free and the amount of data you will receive depends on the solution you select.

But, WebPageTest has a number of superior options than any other programs. Here are a couple of these:

• Find performance problems. WebPageTest helps you find potential bottlenecks as well as areas for improvement permitting users to make specific improvements to your site.
• Boost search engine rankings. Site speed is an important factor in the ranking of engines like Google speedier sites will be higher ranked in search results for search.
• Monitoring performance over time. Regular testing with WebPageTest will allow you to monitor the performance of your site and spot any potential problems before them becoming serious issues. It is possible to monitor data on performance for a full year using the free plan which will be more than sufficient to spot trends.

Furthermore, WebPageTest presents the results in an easy-to-understand manner. This can be extremely useful if you're new to the world of testing performance and optimization:

Alongside these concise overviews, you'll find numbers that pertain to the performance of your website. In the following section, we'll show you how to read these numbers.

What is the Best Way to Use WebPageTest

The process of running a test using WebPageTest is simple. To begin, you'll have to create a free account, which doesn't require you to enter information for making payments.

For the most comprehensive results, we recommend conducting both desktop and mobile tests. Additionally, it is advised to select the test area that is close to the server so that results don't get distorted because distance.

If there is no pre-configured location to can be used for testing, choose the Advanced Configuration option. You can select other locations for testing in addition to entering advanced parameters.

If you're happy with your configurations you can click "Start Testing". The results will take a few seconds to generate and, when they've been generated be able to access an extensive test report.

What to Interpret WebPageTest Results

One of the biggest difficulties with programs like WebPageTest is the fact that they give a lot of information to users following tests. It's not a problem when you are aware of the metrics you should be focusing on. However, it can be a bit intimidating if you're attempting it for the very first time.

If you're trying to understand the results you'll need to be aware of three major areas of WebPageTest reports. First, there is the section that is called the"Performance Summary" section. It provides a summary of your site's results. The report will inform you of what your website's performance is with regard to efficiency, reliability, and usability.

It is possible to click on icons in each category for additional information. Each category has information on the components that were tested, as well as outcomes. If there's a glitch within the site, it will be identified by the factor that caused it and offer suggestions on the best way to address it.

If you're on the main report page, you can go to the of Page Performance Metrics section. There is a range of indicators that reveal how long it will take to load, before it is operational.

If you're unsure of the significance of what each of these signs the meaning of each one, let us give you a quick summary:

• . This metric is used to determine the amount of time for the website to respond to the browser's first request. The slow servers may take some time to react, thus increasing the overall loading speed.
• Beginning render. This tells you the time it takes the webpage to display clearly visible elements. It could be that the site is running in the background and until the user sees something, they might not know whether the page functions properly.
• First Contentful Paint (FCP): This is the duration for the browser's rendering of the initial piece of information on a page. A lower FCP indicates a faster loading website.
• Speed index. A composite score which measures how fast the web page's content can be observed by visitors. The lower the score, the higher the quality.
• . This metric will tell you the time it will take to load the main part of the page. It's generally a valid indicator of the page's loading time.
• . This score indicates how often the design of a page "shifts" or changes as it load. The more the page shifts more, the less user experience. Zero is the number to aim for in this case.
• Blocking time total. With this metric it will show how long before the site is fully functioning. It could be that the page is rendered visually, however the website might be loading scripts on the background that hinders users from accessing it.

This section on Real-World Usage Metrics section offers a summary of these measurements in comparison to recent test results of other users (if there are). To see the complete picture of your site's performance it is suggested to evaluate these metrics with the previous pages performance metrics section.

The best outcome from this will be the identical or better:

It is also recommended that you review the waterfall chart showing the loading process for each part of the page. This will help you determine particular elements that could cause delays or can be optimized for better effectiveness.

Are you Using WebPageTest for Testing Your Business?

If you've got a website that you'd like to check, it's recommended to test it regularly for the performance of your website to ensure that the site provides an excellent user experience. It's not necessary to utilize the tools you like for performance and let's examine some of the reasons that we suggest WebPageTest.

To paint an accurate overview, we'll also speak about the pros and cons of these services.

WebPageTest Pros

• Comprehensive analysis. WebPageTest provides detailed data on the website's performance making it simple to find areas that need enhancement.
• Flexible tests that you can customize. The tool supports different websites web browsers and testing settings that allow the user to replicate a diverse test scenarios. Test settings can be altered to fit your preferences or choose to utilize the default settings this tool provides if you need an overview of the tests.
• Free and open source. We're big supporters of open-source software. It's a plus for using WebPageTest in the first place. While the website does offer a higher-end tier of service however, the no-cost plans are more than adequate to cover the majority of sites.
• Historical performance data. Through WebPageTest You can access up to a period of 13 months worth of test information for all websites you use this service to test. This is more than enough data to monitor performance trends for most websites.
• Improved performance of recommendations. WebPageTest provides recommendations or "opportunities" to improve your site's performance based on the issues it observes in your site. The report also provides explanations of the motivation behind each of these modifications.

WebPageTest Cons

• It is essential to join the service. Although WebPageTest provides a full free plan, you must sign up for the test service in order to use it. However, the service doesn't need payment information in the process of signing up.
• The learning of the curve. WebPageTest provides a variety of information useful that is overwhelming for those who are new to optimizing web performance. In contrast to similar tools, this curve is simpler when you use WebPageTest.
• restricted automated. While it is possible to automate WebPageTest through the API, it may require more setup and knowledge of coding compared with other programs that come with automation features.

WebPageTest Pricing

WebPageTest offers both Premium and Free plans. The free plan enables you to take advantage of an extensive number of tests every month. Furthermore, the platform keeps thirteen months of test information for premium and free users.

With regards to benefits, customers of premium plans have the ability to conduct more tests. In addition, they will get the first priority to test when the service is at capacity (which isn't often). In addition, if you want to gain API acces to WebPageTest but you'll need to pay for the upgrade option.

What WebPageTest Compares to Other Websites Speed Test Tools

This article will examine how WebPageTest can be compared with the two options.

Google PageSpeed Information

It was developed by Google the tool offers an easy score for performance, and offers specific suggestions for optimizing. Its results are also thorough when compared with WebPageTest.

In contrast, WebPageTest examines each page repeatedly during every run. Additionally, it allows users to create tests that can be designed and created, an option which PageSpeed Insights doesn't offer.

Pingdom Tools

This tool is perfect for those who want to conduct quick tests with an adequate selection of servers. As opposed to PageSpeed Insights or WebPageTest, Pingdom isn't able to give a thorough overview of areas for improvement or issues with your site. It instead provides the overall picture of your site's performance based on the information, which may be sufficient from time the time.

Based on our experience we've learned that it's possible to get top outcomes by performing frequent tests with a variety of software. If you're planning only use one service, WebPageTest can deliver the best results when compared to other options like PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom Tools.

Summary

It is crucial to keep track of the performance of your site to make sure that your site in good state. This involves conducting regular test of the speed and other activities that will increase load time.

There are a variety of tools that monitor the performance of a website, but we recommend WebPageTest. It's completely no cost and offers detailed results. Additionally, you're able to store the test results for at least 13 months which gives you the overall view of how your website's performance over the course of.

• It is easy to set up and manage My dashboard. My dashboard
• Support is always available.
• The top Google Cloud Platform hardware and network driven by Kubernetes to ensure maximum capacity
• Enterprise-grade Cloudflare integration to speed up and security
• Global audience reach with the prospect of having 35 data centers as plus more than 275 PoPs spread across the world

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