Is my WordPress blog fast enough? (part 1)
It’s one of the most popular questions which owners of WordPress blog ask. And it can’t be answered for sure. Let’s review how we can be sure (or not sure) about website performance.
Well let’s start with simple server side generation time. This value can be measured with the plugin mentioned in the previous post – Panel Load. But it gives us ‘internal’ numbers, not ‘external’ (or actual) ones what browser (or your visitors) can feel. ‘Internal’ numbers or very close to ‘external’ ones. But there can be a difference. So let’s get ‘external’ server response timings.
Host Tracker
The first well-known tool is host-tracker.com (no registration required). You need only to type your website host (like www.speedingupwebsite.com) to the input field (by default there is HTTP mode – exactly what we need). Then you will get several (dozens) of values in ‘Response time’ column. Average number there can be our approximate value, but you should also find the lowest value – it will the most ‘real’ one because all response timings includes delay to send signal (packets) to the server and return back. So if you have a website for Californian citizens you shouldn’t care about Japanese or Croatian ones 
.
A good value for server response here will be about 1-2 seconds. If more – you probably have serious issues with your blog performance. But this tool has one major disadvantage – we can’t separate network delay from actual server side delay.
Web Optimizator
There is another (less known) tool to check timings more precisely – webo.name. After quick registration (in My Account, top right corner) you should go to ‘Server response time’ (in the left menu). Here just enter website host name (i.e. www.speedingupwebsite.com) and you will get more accurate numbers.
This tool tracks DNS lookup, TCP/IP time (time to connect to the server), SSL processing (is 0 for common websites) as ’server wait’, time to process request on server side (our server side expenses) as ’server answer’. Also transfer time, but we will return to this parameter lately.
This test better to perform several times and get an average number (because due to several reasons response time can have a wide floating range). So from this test we get time to process request (server side generation time). Great! And it’s actually about 240-250ms (greater than plugin Panel Load shows, but near this value).
Load Impact
To completely kill you blog (it’s a joke ) you can run a load test from www.loadimpact.com (no registration required). It shows how mush time will it take from server if you jave doznes (or hundreds) of simultaneous visitors. Right now maybe you don’t have so much traffic but if you are digged, or start promo campaign, or release something new – you can have 10x…100x more visitors. And you should be ready.
So what can we get from this picture? If you have plain curve (like the upper) all is OK. Average delay should be less than 1s (so right now there isn’t all OK with the website). But this test also included network delay, and can be not so precise if you have website not in the USA. If you have here rapidly rising curve – it’s a point for anxiety. And you should know this before you have much more visitors.
Conclusion
Good server side performance is about 100-400ms delay per every page. You can track this value and be informed about possible consequences if this value is too large.
We will cover client side performance measurement tools in the next post. Your blog performance is not just about server side delays.
Hi guys,
I know this might be a bit off topic but seeing that a bunch of you own websites, where would the best place be to host. Someone recommended I use Blue Host for $6.95 a month which seems like a great deal. Anyone here on http://www.speedingupwebsite.com using them?
@Skarmapealley: Blue Host has very poor static files support (about 200ms delay to serve them). We don’t use it and don’t recommend.