{"id":11037,"date":"2017-12-04T16:48:32","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T15:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saasweb.agency\/blog\/testing-website-loading-speed-with-webpagetest-org\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T08:11:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T07:11:29","slug":"testing-website-loading-speed-with-webpagetest-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saasweb.agency\/en\/blog\/testing-website-loading-speed-with-webpagetest-org\/","title":{"rendered":"Testing Website Loading Speed with webpagetest.org"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n
\n

Ever-increasing speed<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

The topic of loading speed is not a new one: even in the early days of the web, loading time was a critical factor for a website’s success. Internet bandwidth was so low\u2014remember, 56k modems were often the absolute best one could hope for in the late 1990s; today, connections with 100 Mbps and more are common\u2014that even a few hundred kilobytes was the upper limit for a page to achieve a decent loading time.<\/p>\n

With increasing bandwidth, the situation for desktop computers has eased somewhat, at least in theory. However, the growing use of mobile devices and increasingly larger screens with high resolutions (back in the late 1990s, for example, 19″ with 1,200 x 800 pixels; today, for example, 27″ with 2,560 x 1,440 pixels) puts website operators in a similar position as back then. It’s a bit like the smartphone battery problem: batteries are becoming more powerful, but devices are consuming more and more power. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Loading speed as a ranking factor<\/h3>\n
\n Today, loading time is taking on a new dimension: search engines, most notably Google, integrate loading time into their index calculations. Simply put: the slower a website loads, the further down it appears in search results. Since this shift, the topic has gained traction among professional website operators, and a literal race has begun. As of 2026: Google evaluates the loading experience primarily through Core Web Vitals<\/a>\u2014Largest Contentful Paint (LCP, when the largest visible content has loaded), Interaction to Next Paint (INP, how quickly the page responds to input), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS, how much the layout shifts during loading). This is one ranking factor among many; high-quality content remains more important. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Factors influencing loading time<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n There are several levels where optimizations can make a difference. On one hand, there are factors related to the connection itself or the “power”\u2014in a car analogy: the horsepower, whether the car is aerodynamic, how much it weighs… On the other hand, there is whether a website is well-built and prevents unnecessary loading of elements\u2014in a car analogy: the driver; are they driving optimally, do they know the route, or do they have to stop at every traffic light? There are certainly better comparisons than cars ;-). In any case, these two levels are explained in more detail in the following paragraphs. <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Hosting level: Infrastructure, web server, caching<\/h3>\n
\n