Website performance tests are a great way to cast a wide net on frontmost pages on your site and can be thought of as a general discovery feature to catch defects that may not appear in other performance tests.
Website scans crawl the links on your site for up to twenty minutes before timing out. All websites follow the same patterns and after twenty minutes (our max) the results offer diminishing returns.
How should you designate a single URLs to test?
Website tests take in a start URL and crawl the links originating from that page. The results are aggregated inside of a snapshot so that you can catch the most impactful defects across the pages scanned, without having to designate specific URLs to test.
Common steps to identify URLs for Website Performance Tests:
- Identify pages that reference a large number of links across your site
- Use pages that link to URLs with a lot of rich content (i.e. videos and images)
- Focus on pages that link to the most highly trafficked URLs
- Test pages in pre-production environments that will be impacted by a major release or site redesign
Common examples of URLs to scan with Website tests
E-Commerce
Example: Ralph Lauren Sale Page - All Items
Website test start URL:
- http://www.ralphlauren.com/shop/index.jsp?categoryId=1760788&ab=global_sale
Use case:
Sale pages are highly trafficked and the content is continuously being updated. We should use a Website crawl to test the content on this page in pre-production to ensure that all content is optimally delivered. We also would advise running another test once the page is launch in production to ensure nothing slipped through the cracks.
Online Publishers and Media
Example: The Weather Company - Video & Photos
Website test start URL:
- https://weather.com/slideshows
Use case:
Pages that link to rich content (like "Videos & Photos" on Weather's site) contain slideshow and video player widgets that are powered by complex Javascript and include ads, tracking, and analytics pixels. Many times this content is shared on social media and backlinks are present on other media sites. It's vital to ensure that you deliver the best experience to users who are referred to your site and optimizing these pages has a big impact on your business KPIs like bounce rate and time spent on the site.
SaaS / Enterprise
Example: GlaxoSmithKline US - Media
Website test start URL:
- https://us.gsk.com/en-us/media/
Use case:
Enterprises spend time and resources ensuring that their content is easily distributable and available to their users. GlaxoSmithKline's Media page is a great example of this as it contains content related to press releases, social media, infographics and more. Users visiting these pages are looking for specific information and making this experience fast has an impact on your brand, just like the content that you're making available to the visitors on your site.