4 Critical Metrics To Monitor For Improving Website Speed

Creating a good user experience for visitors accessing a website isn’t as easy as implementing a single proven formula. However, paying close attention to specific metrics at regular intervals can provide teams with a number of actionable insights. These insights help teams identify issues that may be worked for improving site speed.

Four metrics that teams must keep an eye on to ensure websites are delivering an optimal experience.

1. Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) Connection Time

TCP Connection Time represents the time taken by a browser (Mobile or Web) to establish a reliable connection with a server. Identifying issues in TCP connections can be challenging at times as it depends on multiple factors.

2. Time To First Byte (TTFB)

Time to First Byte represents the amount of time taken by a mobile or web browser to fetch the first byte of information or response from the server once a user requests a specific URL. At a high level, TTFB comprises of three components:

• The time required to forward the HTTP request
• The time taken by the server to process the request
• The time taken by the server to send back the first byte of information to the user

Inefficiently written code, slow database queries, or a misconfigured server are among the most common issues that may lead to the poor performance of TTFB. Identifying and resolving such critical issues can considerably enhance website speed.

3. Page Load Time

Page load time represents the total amount of time taken by the browser to completely display the content of a particular web page. Listed below are a few factors that affect the page load time in this regard:

• Inefficiently written HTML, CSS scripts
• Usage of unoptimized high-resolution images
• Multiple redirects

It’s highly recommended for teams to follow all the guidelines mentioned in this article on how to increase website speed so that they can create web pages that load faster.

4. Page Response Time

As the name suggests, page response time represents the amount of time taken to completely receive the first response from the target server. If the response time is low, there’s a high probability of users bouncing from the site. According to Google, the response time should be less than 200ms.

Recommended Read: Why Page Speed Matters and How to Test your Page Speed Score

Monitoring the metrics above will help teams evaluate their websites for speed issues at regular intervals. Teams should consider leveraging this free website speed test tool to benchmark their scores against their competitors.