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How to Test Your WordPress Site Performance

wordpress performance

Website performance is mainly about loading time. Few people will stay at a slow website. Websites with less than optimal speed come with issues like lower conversion rates and higher bounce rates. Failing to optimize speed can cost you, potential customers, because there is a direct relationship between bounce rates and loading times.

Inadequate optimization can make your site hard to use as well. The good news is that WordPress offers no shortage of ways to optimize your site’s performance. Other factors include web hosting and themes. Some hosts provide better speed, e.g. Best hosting services provide better speed, and some website themes are faster than others.

To be as thorough as possible, check on your site’s performance once every two weeks, especially when there’s a spike in traffic.

Do you want to know how to speed up WordPress? You’re about to find out!

Use Pingdom Tools

Tools like Pingdom make it possible to measure performance by seeing how long its pages take to load. It’s intuitive and gives users access to numerous test server sites. To use this tool, enter your webpage address and select a server. Pingdom has two servers in the US and two abroad – one in Sweden and one in Australia. It’s best to run tests on all four to get an idea of your site’s loading time in different locations. 

This won’t take too much time: a test probably won’t take more than several seconds. After that, you’ll get the results. They might seem overwhelming at first because there are quite a few numbers, but you need to focus on overall load time. It shouldn’t be more than two seconds.

Bounce rates tend to increase suddenly and significantly with loading above two seconds. What’s more, there’s always room for improvement even if your site doesn’t take longer than that to load. The optimal load time is one second.

Stress Test Tool

Some hosting providers will ensure a satisfactory service if traffic is moderate, but they leave something to be desired when it spikes. Even if a speed testing tool shows that your site loads fast, the speed could drop when a lot of people at once are browsing.

A stress test tool is one of the most optimal ways to see if your server can handle higher traffic. One such tool is Load Impact. You can simulate traffic from different regions and specific numbers of visitors with it. By entering your URL, you can use Load Impact without registering.

Alternatively, you can sign up for a free account. The basic account simulates traffic from up to 25 people at the same time. This is sufficient to check your site’s performance under pressure. You’re doing well if its loading time stays under two seconds and remains steady.

MonsterInsights

While this tool doesn’t check speed, it can come in handy. Previously known as Google Analytics for WordPress, the final choice can help improve your content and user experience and your site in general. It shows how individual pages are performing and which online campaigns bring the highest number of conversions. For instance, if you have a site like London Escorts it will become easier for you to recognize this type of content and improve its visibility.

The plugin lets you add, manage, and customize Google Analytics tracking easily, right you’re your dashboard. You can view bounce rate and session data and set up tracking for downloads and internal or outbound links.

PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights, a tool by Google, is not unlike Pingdom in some ways. The process of using the tools is the same. You enter your website’s address, press a button, and instantly get the results.

The similarities end there. PageSpeed does more than measure the time it takes your site to load. It also provides detailed information and tips to improve its performance. It gives suggestions about all the areas that you can make better.

These suggestions are listed with links below each. When you click on a link, you’ll learn what the issue is and which files you need to optimize.

PageSpeed has many great features, but the best one is distinctive results for mobile and desktop website versions. You’ll see different tabs at the top of the screen, which allows you to switch between the two reports.

Thank you for reading our suggestions, and good luck!