As internet users, we all know how frustrating slow-loading websites are. Even mere seconds of delay can encourage your visitors to switch sites (and they're going straight to your competitors).
It's not just load time. A poor-performing website can be disastrous in everything from user satisfaction to your company's bottom line. Fortunately, there's a solution—effective website performance monitoring.
What is website performance monitoring?
Website performance monitoring is about tracking your website's essential data and user experience using various metrics and technical parameters. For the most part, it analyzes websites status or uptime and monitors critical website health parameters, such as:
- Time to the first byte
- Broken link
- Page speed and load time
- CPU utilization
- Database performance
- DNS lookup time
- Error rate
- Peak response time
Web performance monitoring ensures your business' web services are as effective for end users as possible. It's also important because poor site performance can cost you a lot—reduced visitor traffic, lost revenues, and a tarnished brand.
Website performance monitoring: 8 Key metrics for a successful site
Many factors come together to deliver a successful, coherent website—and a majority of which affect your site's performance. However, with website performance monitoring, you can keep these metrics in check and optimize your website to reach maximum reach and impact.
Here are the top six such metrics every business should keep a close eye on:
#1. Google page speed insights
It's a free performance monitoring tool by Google that can help you track Core Web Vitals. Simply enter your website URL, and you'll have a report with key metric scores.
These are the top three metrics and the ideal scores you should aim for:
- First Input Delay: 100 milliseconds or less
- Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): 2.5 seconds or less
- Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): 0.1 or less
#2. Log monitoring
Log monitoring is the process of collecting, analyzing, and acting on website log data. This includes infrastructure and applications—network, compute, and storage.
Monitoring logs on your website can help teams dive in and review records when an issue arises. Moreover, it allows you to:
- Centralize data to give visibility across operations
- Provide faster responses to incidents
- Use the logs for security and observability operations
- Automate to save time
However, you need centralized log management systems to conduct log monitoring at an organizational scale. Even on modern sites and web applications, the value of logs can be too high to parse by hand.
Look for monitoring solutions that provide individual and aggregate log data. It'll help you extract the exact information you need at any time.
#3. Images
Most image files are much larger than plain HTML text files. That's why they take longer to render in the browser and considerable load time. Fortunately, it can be fixed with image optimization.
Here are five things to focus on when optimizing images:
- Resize your images to the required dimension before uploading. Scale down their sizes to save up more space. Also, rather than uploading one large image in different web locations, you can upload the same image in varied dimensions.
- Don't upload any irrelevant images. Each image is another resource for your site to load, so choose only what's really needed.
- Compress images and try out different file types like JEPF 2000, PEG XR, and WebP instead of heavier options (PNG or JPEG).
- Use cloud storage, like Dropbox alternatives, for offloading the server load version, control and backup, and easy collaboration.
- Implement native lazy loading to ensure that the images are loaded only when the users view them instead of all loading simultaneously.
#4. Page speed blockers
Many factors can slow down your website's load time. However, if you don't want to spend massively in finding and fixing all of them, here are the primary culprits you can start monitoring first:
- Unsaved JavaScript and CSS Code: Regularly review and optimize your codebase, removing any unnecessary or redundant elements. Minimize the use of inline styles and scripts.
- Too many redirect chains: Simplify your URL structure and minimize redirects where possible. Each additional redirect can add significant load time.
- Larger image file sizes: Compress and optimize your images to reduce their file sizes without sacrificing quality. Use modern image formats, like WebP, to improve loading speed.
- Unminified JavaScript and CSS code: Minify your code to eliminate unnecessary spaces, comments, and line breaks, reducing file sizes and improving page loading times.
- Render blocking JavaScript and CSS code: Prioritize critical CSS and use asynchronous or deferred loading for non-essential scripts to allow faster rendering of your page.
#5. Website security and caching
Even if your website's load time is perfect and the user experience is better than ever—it's all just a hack away from the wreckage.
So, get a trustworthy security technology that religiously monitors your website's security systems. Implement site security measures by focusing on the following:
- SSL/TLS Encryption
- Web application Firewalls
- Regular software updates
- User authentications and authorization
Incorporate site security measures and optimize caching techniques into your performance monitoring strategies for a well-rounded approach that ensures your site's safety and success.
Learn More: How to Improve the Security of Your Website in 5 Easy Steps
#6. Uptime
Though uptime is not a performance metric technically, it is a crucial aspect of a successful website or application.
Uptime tells you how frequently your website is down and how well its functions. Repeated website crashes can be destructive for your Google rankings and user experience—in turn, your entire business.
Thus monitor your uptime. Ideally, aim for a 99.999% uptime and test your site from different locations.
Invest in a high-performing team
When discussing website success and performance monitoring, it's essential to recognize the role of happy employees in achieving these goals.
Your employee's well-being directly impacts your business' productivity, creativity, and problem-solving abilities.
Invest in employee training and employ good human resource management software. It'll help you optimize talent management, promote employee well-being, foster collaboration, and build a high-performing team capable of delivering expedition website performance.
Leverage website performance monitoring tools
Yes, manual website performance monitoring is possible—you can test site functionalities and translations from different browsers.
But as your business grows, you'll need automated site monitoring tools that consistently monitor your server, user experience, feedback, and more.
So, identify your goals and choose a suitable website performance monitoring tool to meet your business's needs.
Wrap up
Website performance monitoring is more than just making your site load faster. It's about strengthening your entire business's presence, building users' trust, and skyrocketing growth.
And while you won't see consistent performance gain overnight, it'll be well worth it in the longer haul.
