How to Measure Website Speed with cURL

Discover how to measure your website's response time using the curl command, and how it can help you increase traffic and performance of your webpage.

Understanding Server Response Time

Server response time, also known as Time to First Byte (TTFB), is the time it takes for the server to process a web request and send the first byte back to the user.

Think of it as the pause before your web pages begin their journey to the user's screen.

Why Measure The Response Time?

Server response time is a critical part of overall website performance and loading times.

Paying attention to response times has huge benefits:

• Performance Bottlenecks: Server response time helps identify potential performance issues on the server, such as slow database queries, excessive load, or under-resourced infrastructure.
• User Experience: Quickly loading pages enhance user experience because people do not want to wait for slow-loading pages. A fast response time increases user satisfaction and the desire to use your site.
• Search Engine Visibility: Search engines like Google evaluate a site's loading speed as part of its search engine optimization (SEO). Faster pages receive a higher ranking in search results, which helps increase organic traffic and your visibility.

Measuring Response Time with cURL

cURL is a versatile tool commonly found in MacOS and Linux operating systems. It can be used to make various types of network requests.

Server response time is measured with cURL as follows:

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{time_starttransfer}\n" https://www.enstai.fi/

cURL measures how long it takes for the web page at https://www.enstai.fi/ to generate a response. The command returns the response time in seconds.

Real-World Example

juha@MacBook ~ % curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{time_starttransfer}\n" https://www.enstai.fi/
0.152016

Here, the response time is 0.152016 seconds, or 152 milliseconds (ms).

According to Google, a good response time is under 200 ms, or less than 0.2 seconds.

It seems that enstai.fi was quicker to respond, which is great!

Conclusion

In the digital age, speed is of the essence. Monitoring your website's speed with cURL isn't just good practice — it's essential. This diligence is a part of what separates successful websites from the rest.

Keep in mind that each millisecond shaved off your response time can significantly elevate user satisfaction and enhance your position in SEO rankings.