How To Speed Up Your Website by >30% And Tips to Measure Performance Effectively

Many users who complain about long response times of a website have not measured the times objectively at all. A website “feels slow” – can you be sure about this? When assessing the performance of a website, there are two sides to the story: “perceived website performance” and “measured website performance.” 

While both provide valuable insights, they offer different viewpoints that contribute to a comprehensive understanding of a website’s user experience. Let’s delve into the pros and cons of each approach:

Perceived Website Performance:

Pros

• User-Centric: Perceived performance is based on real-time user experiences and emotions while interacting with a website. It provides direct insights into how users perceive the site’s speed and responsiveness.
• Holistic: Perceived performance accounts for various factors beyond technical metrics, such as visual design, content relevance, and overall usability.
• Qualitative Feedback: User feedback on perceived performance can offer nuanced insights that quantitative metrics might miss.
• Engagement: Positive perceived performance can lead to higher user engagement, longer sessions, and improved conversions.

Cons

• Subjective: User’s feelings about performance can differ based on factors like device, network conditions, and personal expectations.
• Limited Scope: It’s challenging to measure perceived performance consistently across all users and scenarios.
• Difficulty in Benchmarking: Perceived performance lacks standardized metrics, making it harder to benchmark and compare across different websites.
• Complex Interpretation: Analyzing qualitative feedback requires interpretation and may not yield easily actionable insights.

Measured Website Performance

Pros

• Objective Metrics: Measured performance relies on quantifiable metrics like load times, page sizes, and scores from tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix.
• Consistency: Metrics offer consistent data points for comparison, enabling benchmarking against industry standards and best practices.
• Actionable Insights: Specific recommendations from performance tools guide developers in making optimizations for better speed and responsiveness.
• Technical Focus: Measured performance highlights technical bottlenecks and opportunities for optimization, such as image compression and code minification.

Cons

• Partial Picture: Measured performance may not capture the complete user experience, as it focuses primarily on technical aspects.
• Limited Context: Metrics may not consider user-specific conditions, such as device capabilities or real-world network speeds.
• Lack of User Emotion: Metrics can’t directly capture user emotions and satisfaction while interacting with the website.
• Overemphasis on Speed: Solely relying on technical metrics might neglect other crucial aspects of user experience, such as accessibility and content quality.

Part of Both Worlds: Time to First Byte (TTFB)

The Time to First Byte (TTFB) is given special attention in both cases – the perceived, but also the measured Website speed. TTFB measures the time it takes for a user’s browser to receive the first byte of data from a web server after making a request.

Let’s explore why TTFB is a metric that web developers and site owners should keep on their radar.

Understanding TTFB

TTFB encompasses the server-side processing time that occurs before any content starts loading in a user’s browser. It’s a composite metric influenced by several factors, including the server’s processing power, database queries, code execution, and network latency.

The Impact on User Experience

TTFB directly impacts the perceived speed of a website. A fast TTFB means quicker page load times, which can result in enhanced user satisfaction, lower bounce rates, and improved SEO rankings. On the other hand, a sluggish TTFB can lead to frustration, increased abandonment rates, and negative effects on search engine visibility. Therefore, TTFB is important for the perceived speed of a website, but in itself is a hardcore technical criterion in the speed game.

Factors Influencing TTFB

Several factors contribute to TTFB:

• Server Performance: The efficiency of the server’s hardware and software significantly affects TTFB. A well-optimized server can process requests more swiftly.
• Network Latency: The distance between the user’s browser and the server plays a role. Geographic proximity and network quality impact how quickly data travels.
• Code Execution: Complex code or resource-intensive operations can increase TTFB. Efficient coding practices and caching mechanisms can mitigate this.
• Database Queries: If a website relies on databases, slow database queries can extend TTFB. Optimizing queries and database structure is essential.

Improving TTFB

Enhancing TTFB requires a comprehensive approach involving multiple strategies:

• Optimize Server: Choose a reliable hosting provider with robust hardware and optimized configurations for your website’s technology stack.
• Utilize Caching: Implement server-side caching and leverage content delivery networks (CDNs) to reduce the load on your origin server. You can use Cloudflare with the free Plesk Cloudflare extension to proxy part of your content.
• Minimize Redirects: Excessive redirects contribute to longer TTFB. Keep redirections to a minimum.
• Reduce Code Overhead: Streamline your codebase, eliminate unnecessary scripts, and optimize resource loading.
• Database Optimization: Fine-tune your database queries and ensure efficient indexing to minimize database-related delays.
• Content Compression: Compress assets like images, stylesheets, and scripts to reduce the amount of data transferred.