Some Key Website Performance Metrics

Some Key Website Performance Metrics
Some Key Website Performance Metrics

For a business, having a website is essential to make an impression and reach out to potential customers. Apartfromcontent and user experience, another reason why users flock to certain websites while ignoring the others is “website performance.” This is why it is very important to measure your website’s performance in order to see how it is impacting the customers and what adjustments are needed to make it perform better.

Depending on your goals and type of business, there are different metrics to track your website’s performance. Below are some of the key website performance metrics every business must keep an eye on.

Page load-time/speed

This has to be one of the most important web performance metrics. It measures the time it takes to download and display the entire content of a web page. A faster page load-time helps your website to retain a larger audience. Page speed threshold usually differ based on the type of site or web application. For example, an eCommerce site should have a load-time of between 2 and 3 seconds. This is quite attainable over modern internet speeds, but with mobile networks like 3G, it can be a challenge.

To improve your website’s load-time on both desktop and mobile devices, you will need to make use of proper website performance and speed testing tools like Google Pagespeed Insights, Uptrends, WebPageTest, GTmetrix, Sematext, and several others. Before selecting a tool, make sure you visit web developer blogs and review sites to get more information on their features and uses.

TTFB (Time to First Byte)

This metric is used to measure the time the first byte of each file takes to reach a user’s browser after establising connection with a server. A TTFB of less than 200 milliseconds is recommended. Some of the ways you can improve your website’s TTFB include;

  • Optimizing your code for better load balancers, static caches, and dynamic contents
  • Making use of a server that is well suited for your needs (you can check out web developer blogs for good server recommendations)
  • Using a good content delivery network for faster delivery of images and scripts to users.
  • Reducing queries by removing all the non-crucial HTTP requests your website makes.

Time to Interact

The time to interactive (TTI) measures the time taken until the application is rendered and can respond to user input. This is an important metric because the time it takes for a user to begin to interact (click on links, type in text fields or scroll on a page) with a web page can determine whether the user stays or leaves the page.

You can improve your page’s PTI by; magnifying and compressing your code, using Pre-load and minimizing the main thread work. You can also learn how to calculate your website’s TTI on web developer blogs like dareboost.com

DNS Lookup Time

This is the amount of time it takes for your domain lookup to happen while the browser loads the resources. What this means is that it is the time your Domain Name System (DNS) provider takes to translate your domain name into an IP address. The faster your DNS provider is, the faster your DNS lookup speed will be.

The only thing you will need to do to optimize your DNS lookup speed is to find a provider that best suits your needs. There are several web developer blogs with articles to guide you in choosing the best DNS provider for your website.

Traffic Sources

Knowing the source of your website’s traffic can help you to not only measure the quality of that traffic but the activities of those users on your website. This way, you can also identify and prioritize those marketing channels that are more efficient in converting leads. Monitor site-traffic metrics like sessions, channels/medium, new vs returning visitors, landing pages, time spent on each page, and pages per visit.

By reviewing each of these site-traffic metrics, you will be able to better understand how to make a good impression on visitors in order to keep them coming back.

Error Rate

This performance metric tracks the percentage of request issues your website has in relation to the total number of requests. Monitoring this number is important in order to identify and fix errors when they occur. There are some user-monitoring tools like Dynatrace RUM, Monitis, New Relic Browser, and Pingdom that you can use to monitor your website for errors.

You can find product descriptions and reviews for each of these tools on web developer blogs and review sites.

Conclusion:

Keeping track of your website’s performance metrics is very important, especially if you want it to stand out in a sea of other websites. However, there are many different performance metrics out there, and the key to using them properly is by identifying the ones that can help you assess whether your website is meeting the needs of your business.

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