Performance Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

What is Siteimprove Performance?

Siteimprove Performance is a new performance monitoring tool that is offered as part of the Siteimprove Suite, allowing users to easily schedule monitoring in order to assess the load performance of their pages. By presenting clear, actionable data across different pages being monitored, Performance will allow users to get a better understanding of how to improve their pages load performance, and ultimately deliver a better user experience for their visitors.

Why have my Performance scores changed recently (2020)?

You may have noticed that the scores used to assess your pages performance and experiences have changed recently, with some gaining points and others losing points on the 0-100 scale.  This is due to changes and updates that have been applied to the weighting of the Performance score, in order to better reflect how your pages rank according to the latest trends and standards set out by Google.  

Additionally, Performance integrates the Lighthouse scoring scale as part of generating your pages Performance scores, and so the recent updates to the Lighthouse v.6 scoring scale have also carried over into our methodologies for determining how your page's performance is scored.  You can read more about our scoring in our article "Understanding the Siteimprove Performance Score?".

What are Performance credits?

Credits is the means by which you can allocate the available Performance resources within the tool, in order to ensure that you are free to dictate the focus of your page monitoring setup.  When you add Performance to your Siteimprove subscription, a certain threshold of credits is provided according to your specified subscription terms.  These credits are then allocated whenever you schedule a new page monitoring, according to the specific variables used to schedule website performance monitoring.

The number of credits required to schedule a specific page monitoring will vary according to the number of monitoring locations being utilized, the number of pages measured, and the number of devices being tested. When the page monitoring is removed, the credits allocated are freed up and can be used for monitoring other pages in the tool.

Can I select different frequencies of Performance monitoring on my pages?

All monitored pages in Performance are measured and updated once per day automatically.  This frequency is fixed and ensures that trend data is relevant and available wherever necessary. 

If you are actively working on a page, or simply would like to re-run a check, you can do so via the Page Overview, using the re-run button the right next to a specific check.  A page can be re-checked this way as many times as you need, without incurring any credit cost.

How do I remove a page from being monitored, and how do I edit a scheduled page monitoring?

If you’d like to remove a specific page from being monitored, with a given set of visitor profiles for a page, you can do so via the Page Overview page within the Performance tool. The feature for removing/editing a scheduled page monitoring can be found on the right-hand side column in the Page Overview table, under Actions.

To remove a scheduled page monitoring profile, click on 'Edit page' under Actions then de-select the Visitor profile you'd like to remove or select any profiles you'd like to add. 

When you edit the Performance schedules, the credits used will be returned to your account without any penalty, essentially allowing you to use these credits to schedule the monitoring of a new page in the future.

How long does it take for Performance monitoring to generate results?

When you schedule a new page monitoring, it can normally take up to 2-3 minutes to generate a new result. Additional delays in presenting the results can occur if a load is placed on the specific page at the time.

If a page monitoring returns a missing Performance score (Score N/A) after successfully completing the data gathering and visualization, this is likely an indicator that something went wrong when trying to access the page. Please raise a support ticket if this happens after consecutive attempts.

Can I use Siteimprove Performance on non-public pages?

No, this is not currently supported by the tool. The process by which the specific URL is tested and data is gathered means that non-public pages (i.e. pages behind a login and otherwise inaccessible content) cannot currently be measured using Siteimprove Performance.

My geographical location doesn’t show up – will this prevent me from utilizing Performance on my pages?

No, you will still be able to utilize Performance even though your geographical location does not match the available locations for scheduling a page monitoring. The list of available test regions is based on the location of Siteimprove users, population density, international coverage, and technical availability.

When scheduling a page monitoring and selecting the location(s) from which to monitor the specific page, you should try and correlate it to your intended visitor audience as closely as possible, in order to ensure that your content provides an optimal experience for as many of your potential visitors as possible. In most practical cases, your visitors will most likely not always share your specific geolocation, so it’s nevertheless a good idea to ensure that your intended user experience is delivered even to users across a given distance, especially so if your visitor base is diverse and international.

Can I prevent Performance measurements from being included in my visitor figures for web analytics?

Yes, if you are using a system for web analytics (Siteimprove Analytics or other similar systems) you can prevent Performance from clouding your analytics figures by excluding the IP traffic coming from the measurement points used in Performance.  If you do not exclude the IP addresses, they could be included as visitors in your statistics for the page in question.  Below you will find an overview of the actual IP addresses that need to be excluded from your analytics.

Siteimprove Analytics will automatically remove this IP traffic from the visitor numbers, but if you are using other systems that rely on JavaScript resources to gather visitor data, it’s likely a good idea to also exclude this traffic within those systems.

Siteimprove Frontier Course

Siteimprove Frontier offers scalable learning programs, interactive course content, and actionable outcomes for you and your team. Take advantage of our online courses, including " Evaluating your Website Performance (30mins)" to get the most from our products.