The amount of time it takes for your web page to load and display its entire content in the browser window.
Why is this important to monitor?
If you were to read somewhere that a certain website takes about 3 seconds to load their page, it may not seem like a big deal at first. You may think, “3 seconds? That’s not bad at all.”
The truth is that companies are losing a considerable percentage of their users for every millisecond that an average user spends waiting for their web page to load. Google loses about 20% of their traffic for each additional 100 milliseconds it takes a page to load. Pinterest reduced wait times on their web pages by about 40% and increased its search engine traffic and sign-ups by 15%.
Furthermore, the speed of your web application affects your Google organic search rankings. Your users should be having a smooth web experience, despite the device and browser they’re using in order for you to maintain a healthy search rank.
The bottom line is that the performance of your website directly impacts your SEO rankings, conversion rates, revenue, and overall engagement. Web applications have more features than ever before and as developers chase the common goal to leverage the front-end of web pages, we must ensure that performance is not negatively impacted.
There are a number of free tools that test the speed of your website. Some examples include:
Google PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights grades websites within a range of 1-100. The higher the number, the more optimal the web page is considered. It provides reports for desktop/mobile versions of the site and you can also view recommended improvements.
Pingdom
Pingdom offers a website speed test that allows you to test the page load time, analyze it, and find the bottlenecks. It’s easy to use for both experts and novices.
GTmetrix
LogRocket works like a DVR for your web applications, recording everything that your users do on your site. In addition to recording all network requests, errors, and actions a user take on a website or web app, LogRocket also records how long a page or app takes to load and aggregates these numbers across all users. Get a free trial today.