{"id":8338,"date":"2019-05-26T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T15:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/blog\/?p=8338"},"modified":"2025-12-30T14:55:31","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T19:55:31","slug":"what-to-do-when-you-fail-a-website-performance-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmotionhosting.com\/blog\/what-to-do-when-you-fail-a-website-performance-test\/","title":{"rendered":"What To Do When You Fail a Website Performance Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"What<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What can be done if you fail a website performance test? A lot of things, thankfully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A website performance test measures page speed \u2013 the length of time it takes to display all the content on a specific page or the length of time it takes the server to receive that page\u2019s first byte of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is that important? Because visitors aren\u2019t going to sit around and wait for your page to load. In fact, most website visitors will leave if the process takes any more than three seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If your website is slow to load, it\u2019s time to remedy the situation. We\u2019re going to go over a few causes of slow website load times (including website hosting) and what you can do to fix it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s get going!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why speed matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019ve ever waited too long for a website to load, you know how frustrating it can be. And let\u2019s be honest here: when a page takes too long, do you sit around and wait? Or do you bounce?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most web users won\u2019t wait. They\u2019ll just head on over to the next website instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to your own website, you don\u2019t want your visitors to leave because it takes too long to load. Lost visitors equal lost sales, after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a good load time?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to Google, a web page should take three seconds or less to load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, most sites never even get close to that number. According to Google\u2019s benchmark report findings<\/a>, 70% of sites take almost seven seconds for visual content to display above the fold. And when it comes to mobile, the average load time is a full 22 seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are those website owners aware that their websites take so long to load? Perhaps. But maybe not \u2013 and that\u2019s why running regular performance tests is necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to test page speed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Not sure how your website is performing? Or how to test its performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Google\u2019s PageSpeed Insights<\/a> (also available as a WordPress plugin<\/a>) lets you see your pages\u2019 load speed score as well as gives you the reasons that your page may not be loading as quickly as it should. In addition, there are several other WordPress plugins<\/a> that can help diagnose problems and make your website faster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We also recommend our guide on How to Stress Test your Website<\/a> to help identify how much load your site can handle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to improve page speed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As you begin to test your page speed regularly, you will discover that there are dozens of different factors that can contribute to slow load times. Therefore, it stands to reason that there are dozens of different things you can do to improve<\/em> load times. Here are just a few:<\/p>\n\n\n\n