The Complete Guide to using WebPageTest (and Understanding the Results) (r) (r)

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Each website needs to run as quick as is possible. To achieve great website performance requires you to be at the top of your game all throughout the day. It means constantly monitoring your site's performance, making adjustments to enhance it as well as ensuring that each page offers the best user experience that's possible.

In this post this article, we'll have a close study of WebPageTest and how you can profit from this tool. We'll also show how you can run tests and interpret the results, discuss the pros and cons of employing the program as well as discuss the cost. Let's get to it!

What exactly is WebPageTest?

WebPageTest is an effective open-source program developed to aid webmasters and owners evaluate and optimize their websites' performance:

The report provides an extensive review of load times along with rendering speed as well as network utilization. You'll also get a detailed analysis of each page's elements that allows you to pinpoint the areas of weakness and bottlenecks.

Launched in 2008, WebPageTest is among the most popular performance-testing services for web sites. It was initially functioned as an internal test tool within AOL (yes it's old).

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

  WebPageTest's Main features:  

• Simulated tests of various locations around the world
• The analysis of rendering on web pages as well as loading processes such as waterfall charts and filmstrips

There is a way to test your knowledge with WebPageTest without cost. WebPageTest offers a cost-free tier that enables you to test hundreds of times per month and get detailed findings.

What are the reasons to use WebPageTest

There are several varietyof web performance solutions available. A lot of them are completely free and the amount of data you will receive is largely dependent on which service you use.

However, WebPageTest offers a lot better features than other software. We'll look at a few of them:

• Identify performance issues. WebPageTest helps you detect potential bottlenecks as well as areas of improvement, enabling users to apply targeted enhancements to your website.
• Boost search engine rankings. Site speed is an important factor in ranking for engines such as Google and speedier websites are more likely to be ranked better in results for search.
• Monitor performance over time. Regular testing with WebPageTest lets you track performance trends and identify any possible regressions prior to them becoming serious issues. You can monitor performance data that spans a whole year with the no-cost plan that will be more than sufficient to spot patterns.

Furthermore, WebPageTest presents the results in a clear way. This can be extremely useful if you're new to the field of performance testing and optimization:

On top of these brief summaries, you'll get some figures that are specific to the performance of your website. In the following section, we'll show you how to interpret these results.

How to Make Use of WebPageTest

The process of running a test on WebPageTest is simple. For starters, you'll need to sign up for a free account, which doesn't require you to enter details for payment.

For the most comprehensive results, we recommend running both mobile and desktop tests. Additionally, it is recommended to choose the testing location closest to the site's server to ensure that the results don't get distorted because of distance.

If none of the pre-configured locations work for your test Choose your Advanced Configuration option. It will allow you to choose from other test locations as well as enter advanced parameters.

If you're satisfied with your configurations, click on "Start Test". Results will take few seconds to generate and, once they're generated, you'll be able to access an extensive test report.

What to Interpret WebPageTest Results

One of the biggest issues with tools such as WebPageTest is that they can throw lots of data to you following tests. This isn't a problem if you know what metrics to focus on. It can however seem daunting if you're trying the platform for the first time.

If you are looking to understand the results, it is recommended to pay attention to three main areas of WebPageTest reports. The first one is The section titled Performance Summary section, which gives a summary of your site's results. It will let you know the position of your website with regard to performance reliability, usability, and usability:

You can click on the icons in each category for more details. Every category will include details about the elements that were tested and the results. If there's a problem on the site, then the report will identify the factor that caused it and provide recommendations on how to fix it:

When you are back on the main report page, you can scroll to section Page Performance Metrics section. There are a variety of measures that will show how long your site takes to load, and then become operational:

If you're not certain the meaning of each one of these indicators refers to, here's an easy overview:

• . This metric measures how long it takes for the site to respond to the browser's initial request. The slow servers may take while to respond, increasing the overall loading speed.
• Start render. This tells you how long it takes for the webpage to display visible elements. The site might be running in the background and until they see something, they might not know whether the page functions properly.
• First Contentful Paint (FCP): This is the time it takes for the browser's rendering of the initial piece of information on a page. A lower FCP indicates an easier loading site.
• Speed index. A composite score which measures how fast the web page's content can be seen by users. The lower the score, the higher the quality.
• . This metric will tell you the time it will take to load the most significant element of a webpage. It's usually a reliable gauge of a page's load time.
• . This score indicates how often the design of a webpage "shifts" or alters as it loads. The more the page shifts, the poorer the user experience. Zero is the number you should aim for here.
• Total blocking time. With this metric, you can see how long it will take before the site is fully functional. The page may be rendered visually, but the site may be loading scripts on the background that hinders users from accessing it.

The section on Real-World Usage Metrics section gives an overview of those measurements compared with the latest test data from other users (if there is). To get the full picture of your site's performance it is recommended to compare these metrics with the previous page performance metrics section.

The ideal outcome of the latter will be the same or superior:

We also suggest that you review the waterfall chart showing the loading process for each part of the page. This can help you identify the specific elements that may be causing delays, or can be optimized for better efficiency.

Are You Using WebPageTest to Test Your Business?

If you've got a website that you want to test, it's best to do periodic tests of performance to be certain that it provides a great user experience. There's no need to use the tools you like for performance and let's examine the main reasons we suggest WebPageTest.

In order to paint a clear picture, we'll also talk about the cons of the services.

WebPageTest Pros

• Complete review. WebPageTest provides detailed data on the website's performance which makes it easy to find areas that need improvement.
• Customizable tests. The tool supports a variety of sites, browsers as well as test settings allowing you to simulate various user experience. The test settings can be customized to your liking or choose to use the default settings that the tool offers if you need an overview of the test.
• Free and open source. We're big fans of open-source software. That's an plus to using WebPageTest in the first place. Even though the site provides a higher-end tier of service however, the no-cost plans are more than adequate to cover the majority of websites.
• Historical performance data. Through WebPageTest You can access up for up to 13 months worth of test data for any websites you use the service for. It's more than enough information to monitor performance trends for most websites.
• Improvements in performance recommendations. WebPageTest provides recommendations or "opportunities" to enhance your site's performance based on the issues it observes in your site. They also provide explanations for the reasons behind each of these changes.

WebPageTest Cons

• It is necessary to sign up. Even though WebPageTest provides a full free plan, you must sign up for the test service in order to use it. However, the service doesn't ask you for payment information during the signup process.
• The learning curve. WebPageTest provides a number of useful information that is overwhelming for those who are new to web performance optimization. However, compared with other similar tools, the curve is much easier when using WebPageTest.
• limited automation. While it is possible to automate WebPageTest via the API it could require additional setup and coding knowledge compared to some other applications that come with automation features.

WebPageTest Pricing

WebPageTest has both a the free and premium plans. The free plan enables you to take advantage of a large number of tests each month. Furthermore, the platform keeps 13 months of test data for premium and free users:

In terms of benefits, customers of premium plans are able to conduct more tests. Additionally, you'll get first priority for testing when the service is at capacity (which isn't a common occurrence). Additionally, if you wish to gain API acces to WebPageTest however, you'll have to pay for an upgrade plan.

How WebPageTest Compars with Other Website Speed Test Tools

We'll look at the way WebPageTest is compared to both of these options.

Google PageSpeed Insights

Created by Google, this tool provides an easy performance score, and provides specific recommendations for optimizing. The results are equally thorough when compared with WebPageTest.

In contrast, WebPageTest examines each page repeatedly during every run. Moreover, it enables users to create tests that you have designed, an option which PageSpeed Insights doesn't offer.

Pingdom Tools

The tool is ideal for those who want to conduct quick tests with a decent choice of servers. As opposed to PageSpeed Insights or WebPageTest, Pingdom does not provide a comprehensive review of potential improvement areas or issues with your site. Instead, it provides an overall view of your website's performance by the data, which might be enough from time to time.

Based on our experiences, it is possible to get top outcomes by performing frequent tests with a variety of tools. However, if you're going to use a single service, WebPageTest can deliver the best results when compared to other options like PageSpeed Insights and Pingdom Tools.

Summary

It is vital to track performance in order to ensure that your site in good condition. This involves conducting regular speed tests and doing things to boost load times.

There are plenty of different tools available to monitor page performance however, we suggest WebPageTest. It's available for free and provides detailed reports. Furthermore, you are able to store the test results for up to 13 months, which gives you the overall picture of your website's performance over the course of.

• Easy setup and management in My dashboard. My dashboard
• Support is available 24/7.
• The top Google Cloud Platform hardware and network driven by Kubernetes for maximum scalability
• Enterprise-grade Cloudflare integration for speed and security
• Global audience reach with the possibility of 35 data centers as well as more than 275 PoPs across the globe