Good news is you know such tools exist and, probably, wonder how to use them to improve your website. Though there is pretty much information out there about the performance tools and website performance analytics, it may seem a bit confusing. We gathered the most important facts to help you understand the topic and use it to your advantage. Whether you are a marketer or a developer, keep on reading as we may have one or two new things here you didn't know.
Lab and Field Data Differ
Lab data is gathered in a controlled environment with the very best tools you have and in the appropriate network settings. The issues are easy to understand and fix but they do not show the real experience your users have. Lab data is helpful for debugging the performance issues and deeper visibility into the UX. It also provides a reproducible testing environment, although it can't correlate against the real-world page KPIs.
On the contrary, field data gives that true and valuable information from the users that you couldn't even imagine in some cases. The pros are capturing the real-world user experience and enabling correlations to your key performance indicators. The cons are some restrictions on the set of metrics and limited debugging capabilities.
There isn't the Most Important Metric
Luckily or not, there is no magic button to press and get it all done. Satisfying user experience is measured by a number of different components. Understanding each of them helps you get the whole picture in mind and improve the specific elements one by one watching the impact it gives.
One User Can't Represent All
The following performance tools will show the detailed opportunities you get by using them. Aiming only at one certain user profile won't help to improve the experience of others as they all use different devices, connections and networks. Testing a variety of such conditions and using field data to form the parameter selections will be much more effective.
Know the Tools
Let's quickly have a look at these tools to know why and how they can help you.
WebPage Test
Compare the performance of one or more pages in a controlled lab environment and get the stats from a real device.
Lighthouse
Get personalized tips to improve your site performance and accessibility, SEO, PWA, etc.
PageSpeed Insights
Get speed field data for your website and the tips to optimize it.
TestMySite
Check your site performance across various devices and get a list of corrections to improve the experience.
Impact Calculator
Easily estimate the potential revenue after improving your mobile website speed according to Google Analytics benchmark data.
Chrome Developer Tools
Identify and fix the performance bottlenecks managing the runtime of a page.
Speed Scorecard
Compare the mobile site speed in more than 10 countries. This information is based on real data from the Chrome User Experience Report.
PageSpeed Green
Analyze everything you need using only one simple tool. Numerous features, easy to read reports and continuous monitoring by integration to CD/CI.
Know Your Goal
It may sound obvious but you should define the reason to use these tools to get the most out of them. If as a marketer you try to build a business case to improve user experience, operating numbers and figures use Speed Scorecard, Impact calculator and TestMySite to get that done.
If you are a developer trying to analyze the current state of your site, PageSpeed Insights or PageSpeed Green will do just what you need. If you want to get the technical guidance on debugging, use Chrome Developer Tools and WebPAge Test for deep diving into your sire's performance.
As you see, all these tools and metrics are there to help you better understand your own website speed and performance, see the real-world experience of your users anywhere in the world, notice the issues and get the guidance to fix them. Even the smallest details matter on a way to making your site rock on the market.
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