How to Run Local Web Page Performance Testing Properly

There are several steps to running local web page performance testing properly. Speed and performance testing bare crucial for any marketing website, as they are some of the primary factors used by search engines to rank web pages. Additionally, faster websites maximize the number of consumers exposed to the products and services within. Moreover, properly performance testing improves several digital marketing skills. As a marketing professional, properly performance test your web pages to improve SEO rankings, user experiences, and conversion rates. Moreover, you secure more social media ads, since they pre-fetch advertiser’s websites before approving the ads. Read on to discover how to run local web page performance testing properly.

Configure Caches

Configuring your caches is the first step in properly performance testing your web pages. Many hosts and site builders disable caching by default to make debugging and development easier. Check your documentation or settings to see if caching is enabled. If not, enable it. You might need to install a caching plugin if you don’t have one. Surely, configuring your cache allows your site to simulate usage when undergoing performance testing.

Determine Testing Location

The next step in performance testing your websites properly is to determine a location from which to test. Since you’re testing, keeping as many constant variables as possible is crucial for accurate results. Therefore, always test your web page performance from the same location. This way, you rule out any fluctuations being caused by physical location, and can attribute changes in performance to another variable. If you can’t access your determined testing location, you can use a VPN to simulate it. Absolutely, determine one testing location to keep that variable constant.

Run Several Tests

Third, run multiple web page performance tests. There are many factors that impact your tests and their results. While most speed/performance testing tools run at the fastest speeds over the cloud, each test shows slightly different results due to these variables. Thus, running several tests in a row while keeping variables constant gives you a more accurate snapshot of web page performance. Average out the resulting data, and use that average to make your own performance evaluations. In fact, use this data to conceptualize creative b2b promotions ideas. Certainly, running multiple tests in a row provides a more accurate result due to the many variables involved.

Test Internal Pages

Test your websites internal pages as a subsequent step in properly performance testing. Many site owners often forget to speed or performance test internal pages of their sites, such as blog posts and product pages. Since every page on a site contains different resources, such as images and coding languages like HTML and CSS, their speed tends to vary. Therefore, run speed and performance tests on several internal pages of your website to ensure its performance is constant across all pages. Definitely, test the internal pages of your website to keep speed and performance consistent across the entire site.

Simulate User Journeys

Lastly, use your performance testing to track user journeys. Load and performance tests should simulate a user scenario as best they can. These scenarios often involve complicated actions following a logical flow, which can include dozens to hundreds of requests. While the creation processes for these types of tests is often tedious, you can auto-generate user scenario load tests from records of user sessions. In fact, leverage marketing mix modeling best practices for accurate data analyses. Of course, simulate user journeys and scenarios to provide an accurate representation of a consumer’s experience on your site.

Testing local web page performance properly can be done in a myriad of ways. For example, configure your caches as the first step that simulates how the website normally behaves. Second, choose a single testing location to keep that variable constant. Third, test multiple times to account for variable fluctuations. Next, test your internal pages to ensure consistent speed and performance across the site. Finally, make sure your tests simulate user journeys to offer accurate views into consumer experiences with your site. When wondering how to run local web page performance testing properly, consider the steps described above.