{"id":544287,"date":"2018-02-06T14:00:20","date_gmt":"2018-02-06T13:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/?p=544287"},"modified":"2024-03-13T11:56:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T10:56:03","slug":"critical-website-performance-metrics-worth-monitoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-rocket.me\/blog\/critical-website-performance-metrics-worth-monitoring\/","title":{"rendered":"The 13 Critical Website Performance Metrics Worth Monitoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cA fast website is a good website\u201d is a phrase you\u2019ve no doubt heard time and time again as you\u2019re continually working on improving the user experience of your site, especially as users these days expect websites with lightning-fast load times.<\/p>

But what exactly does \u201cfast\u201d mean in the context of website performance? Well, it can mean a lot of things, and that\u2019s the problem \u2013 measuring the web performance of your site involves many metrics<\/strong>. So in order to fully understand your site\u2019s performance, you need to grasp what performance metrics you should be measuring, why, and what you can learn from them in order to optimize your site for better speed.<\/p>

So in this post, I\u2019ve put together a list of the key web performance metrics you should be regularly monitoring.<\/p>

1. Uptime<\/h2>

Whether you run a small business or non-profit, an online store, or a simple blog, if traffic can\u2019t reach your website because it\u2019s down, then you are effectively closed for business. And that, in a nutshell, is why uptime is a critical concern for site owners.<\/p>

Uptime is the responsibility of your web host, so if you experience frequent downtime or bandwidth issues, it\u2019s worthwhile reviewing your hosting options. While no host can guarantee 100% uptime, you should be aiming for uptime 99.99% of the time.<\/p>

Services like Pingdom<\/a> and Uptime Robot can monitor your site and instantly alert you when it goes down so you can act quickly to get your site back online.<\/p>

2. Time to First Byte<\/h2>

The time it takes for the first byte of information to reach a visitor\u2019s browser after a connection to the server has been requested is called time to first byte, or TTFB.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure>

This key metric is calculated by adding up the redirect duration (the time spent sending a request to the server), the connection duration (the time spent processing and generating the response), and the backend duration (the time it takes to send the response back to the visitor\u2019s browser).        <\/p>

There are some ways you can improve your site\u2019s TTFB<\/a>, including optimizing code, implementing caching, fine-tuning your web server configuration, and upgrading your server hardware. The order in which site visitors receive information is also important and can help boost your TTFB.<\/p>

3. Time to First Paint<\/h2>

First paint (FP) time marks the point, immediately after navigation, when the browser renders pixels to the screen. Depending on the structure of the page, this could be displaying the background color or it could be most of the page being rendered.<\/p>

Google describes this key metric<\/a> as important to the site visitor because it answers the question: is something happening?<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

FP timing is significant because up until this point, the browser will have only displayed a blank page and this state change shows the visitor that the page is loading.<\/p>

4. Time to First Contentful Paint<\/h2>

First contentful paint (FCP) time is the point when the browser rends the first bit of content from the Document Object Model (DOM), which might be text, an image, SVG, or another element.<\/p>

For site visitors, this timing signifies when actual content has been loaded on the page, and not just any change.<\/p>

As you can see in the example below from my speed text, the FP and FCP timings are identical as these metrics are closely aligned.<\/p>

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>

Why exactly is this metric useful for site admins? Like FP, FCP provides an indication of when site visitors receive \u201cconsumable\u201d information (text, images, etc) and can see that a page is loading and something is happening. Find out how you can improve FCP on WordPress<\/a>.<\/p>

5. Largest Contentful Paint<\/h2>

The Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) metric tells you how long it takes for the largest element on the page to become visible in the viewport. The largest element is usually a text block or an image. This metric is pretty important since it’s one of the Core Web Vitals<\/a>, and can also affect your SEO performance. Needless to say, it’s essential for you to optimize the LCP score<\/a>.<\/p>

6. First Input Delay & Interaction to Next Paint<\/h2>

The First Input Delay (FID) is a former Core Web Vitals metric<\/a> replaced by Interaction to Next Paint (INP)<\/a>. INP measures the responsiveness of your page. FID measures the first interaction by analyzing how long it takes for the browser to respond to the first user\u2019s interaction with a page. Since FID can be only measured with real-user data, you can also take a look at the Total Blocking Time (TBT)<\/a>, which measures interactivity with no user interaction. If the TBT is good, you should not worry about the FID performance as well.<\/p>

<\/div>\n\t