WebPageTest is an incredibly useful resource for any web developer, but the information it provides becomes much more powerful when monitored regularly, rather than at isolated events. SpeedTracker runs on top of WebPageTest and makes periodic performance tests on your website and shows a visualisation of how the various performance metrics evolve over time.
Before getting to the psychological part of performance optimisation, let's answer one question: what is web performance? For the majority of frontend developers, the answer would cover things like page response time, speed of animations, load times.
I’m at Shop.org this week, having really interesting conversations with online retailers. What I love about talking with this crowd is that – like me – they're super focused on user-perceived performance. Not surprisingly, we have a lot to talk about.
I remember going to a local mall in New Jersey and walking into a T-Mobile store back in 2014. I had just moved to the US the previous year, and I was just about sick of using Google Voice to keep in touch with people. Opening my laptop just to send a text or make a call wasn't very convenient. Unfortunately, it was all I could afford to do because I didn't even have a working phone at that time. I was a recent graduate and very unemployed. So I said to myself that the minute I get hired for a job I was going to get myself a new phone.
You could be leaving hundreds of thousands of pounds of revenue on the table every year due to a poorly- or un-optimised website. Slow websites are one of online consumers’ biggest frustrations, and a fast way to miss out on sales.Wether you want to boost revenues, improve conversion rates, reduce churn, or improve retention and engagement, a well-optimised site is a key way to get there.Your website is slow. I can tell you why.
Quickly generate the correct URL for comparing WebPageTest runs. It should also work with custom instances and SpeedCurve URL's.Simply enter a set of test URL's (e.g. https://www.webpagetest.org/result/191128_E6_8f81ddf9ba2ba82ef814fff7baaa5005/) and click 'Generate'.
SpeedTracker
Trick users into thinking your site's faster than it is | Creative Bloq
SpeedCurve | A retailer's guide to web performance
Why Bandwidth Still Matters - DEV Community 👩💻👨💻
Hacking user perception to make your websites and apps feel faster
Performance Audits and Code Reviews – CSS Wizardry – CSS Architecture, Web Performance Optimisation, and more, by Harry Roberts
WPT-Compare - WebPageTest comparison URL generator