Running Website Speed Tests Using Website Accelerator

Website Accelerator uses a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to speed up website response time and improve performance. For more information, see What is Website Accelerator?

You can run speed tests in the Website Accelerator control panel to view Web page performance. The tests are run from servers in different geographical regions. These servers simulate an end user requesting your Web page with a browser. So, Website Accelerator tests the initial HTML and all of the objects that comprise your Web page, such as images, JavaScript and CSS. The amount of time, page size, and other metrics are captured and reported.

To utilize the Performance Dashboard, you must have Website Accelerator activated in your hosting account. For more information, see Activating Website Accelerator.

To Run Website Speed Tests Using Website Accelerator

1. Log in to your HostingDude.com account.
2. Click Web Hosting.
3. Next to the hosting account you want to use, click Manage.
4. From the Stats & Monitors section, click Website Performance.
5. Click Run Test.
6. The following Web page performance stats display:
   • Accelerated Load Time — The amount of time your page took to load using Website Accelerator. This includes the initial HTML plus any objects, such as images, JavaScript or CSS.

     Good	0-3 seconds
     Average	3-6 seconds
     Poor	6+ seconds

   • Original Load Time — The amount of time your page took to load bypassing the Website Accelerator. In other words, what it would have been without Website Accelerator.
   • % Faster — The percentage of your page load time improved by using Website Accelerator. It's calculated by:
     100 * (Original Load Time - Accelerated Load Time) / Accelerated Load Time.
7. Click Advanced Metrics to view the following accelerated stats:
   • Time to 1st Byte — The amount of time it takes a visitor's browser to receive the first byte of data. This is often the most critical factor of page load time. It's generally the amount of time the server is thinking before responding with the HTML. The server is often busy figuring out what the HTML should be. It might be doing database queries, or reaching out to a third-party Web service. The 1st Byte time of the accelerated test is often longer than original because your main page is never cached and must pass through the CDN to the origin. To reduce this time, reduce or eliminate third-party connections and optimize your database queries.

     Good	0-0.5 seconds
     Average	0.5-1 seconds
     Poor	1+ seconds

   • Page Size— The total size of your Web page and all of its objects, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript. The larger your page size, the longer your visitors wait. How long they wait is a function of their available bandwidth and your page size. Reduce page size by reducing the number and size of objects on your page.

     Good	0-332 KB
     Average	333-665 KB
     Poor	666+ KB

   • Total Objects — The total number of objects, such as images, CSS, and JavaScripts that comprise your Web page. Having fewer objects often results in faster page load times, even if the page size remained constant. It takes time to establish TCP connections, so reducing the number of objects is a reduction in the number of TCP connections required.

     Good	1-49 objects
     Average	50-74 objects
     Poor	75+ objects

     • Cached Objects— The total number of objects that contained browser cache instructions in their headers. If you enable these Expires and Cache-control headers, you're telling browsers to hold these files locally. This can dramatically speed up subsequent page requests. For more information, see Enabling mod_expires with Your Hosting Account.

       Good	95-100 percent
       Average	75-94 percent
       Poor	<74 percent

     • Un-Cached Objects — The total number of objects that did not contain browser cache instructions in their headers.
   • Text Compression — The percentage of compressible text files that were optimized. Ideally, all text that comprise your Web page, including HTML, CSS and JavaScript, should be compressed. This is done by our Web servers automatically. Therefore, a low text compression score may be the result of third-party files on your Web page.

     Good	100 percent
     Average	75-99 percent
     Poor	<74 percent

   • Image Optimization— The percentage of lossless compression enabled on the images on your page. Making sure every image on your page is as optimal as possible is vitally important for best performance. Most image creation softwares have image compression options; you just have to know to do it. There are also online tools, such as Smushit by Yahoo®!. (Web pages without images will receive an N/A result.)

     Good	100 percent
     Average	75-99 percent
     Poor	<74 percent

   • JS Minification — The percentage of JavaScript that's been optimized by removing unnecessary comments, whitespace, and shortening variable names. Text compression often provides a bigger size reduction than JS minification. (Web pages without JavaScript will receive an N/A result.)

     Good	100 percent
     Average	75-99 percent
     Poor	<74 percent