10 min read

Having a website is now one of the basic needs of every business online and investing great resources in developing a website that loads slowly is a complete waste of time, effort, and money. If your website loads slowly there are greater chances of viewers abandoning your site because the first 5 seconds determine whether the site visitor is going to stay or abandon. Thus, the primary goal of website owners and SEO experts is to reduce server response time.

What is Server Response Time?

Well, a server response time measures the time required for loading the necessary HTML to start rendering the page, while reducing network latency rate within your server and Google. There are chances for a variance from 1 run to the next, but in the end, the differences are not too many. Moreover, underlying website performance issues are often indicated by highly variant server response time.

Check Server Response Time | A Step-by-Step Guide

If you are thinking about how fast is my server then know it, there are hundreds of tools available across the internet for testing your website loading time but here I am going to state a generalized guide that is based on HTTP/HTTPS Web Server Test by Dotcom-Tools but you can use the below-listed instructions for any tool.

1. Input Server Characteristics & Website URL

The first step is to enter your website URL in the search box. Now you have to select appropriate server types such as HTTPS or HTTP along with request types that mainly include POST or GET from the dropdown menu. Normally, you should select the GET default setting.

2. Optional Parameters

Secondly, you have to incorporate login details to validate logins, either GET or POST parameters you desire to analyze along with the header name & value you need to test.

3. Authenticate Information & Perform the Test

When you are done entering all optional and necessary information conduct a check if the information you entered is correct or not. Then click on Start to initiate the testing of multiple testing protocols.

Upon execution of this test, you will be provided with various KPIs (key performance indicators) such as:

4. Evaluate the Results

• Loading quality and on-page response time
• Website response time & health
• The total loading time of the whole website/webpage
• Website loading duration (Speed)

To understand the effects of traffic on server performance let’s consider the server as a restaurant that is serving burgers, a webserver here can only offer services to limited sites at one time. If it takes longer serving time for a single person that means only a few people are going to be served. When most of the resources are used in serving people, only a few resources are left at the backend for PHP and other stuff required to respond to the user request. Making it simple with the example of a cheeseburger, if all of the workers are busy taking orders then few people are available at the backend to cook meals.

How To Improve Server Response Time?

1. Go for a Reliable & Fast Web Hosting

Ensure that your selected host provider fulfills all needs and requirements of your clients online. It is very important to manage non-fluctuating and fast response times and to attain this because it is the basic requirement to invest in a top-performing host provider. Free and inadequate web hosting services along with no / minimal support, & collective resources are accountable for slower servers. Multiple data centers can provide a vast range of both managed and digital ocean hosting.

2. Avail a Host with CDN (Content Delivery Network)

let me give you a short intro to CDN which is short for the content delivery network. it is a framework of dispersed networks of multiple proxy servers along with their respective data centers. as they are spread out geographically to deliver requested data to end-users in less or no time. When it comes to a global audience, it requires a hosting provider that has dispersed its data centers to multiple nodes across the world. This phenomenon makes sure that all site visitors enjoy fast loading time. It is quite obvious if the host is far from its targeted audience the results will automatically appear slow.

To prevent this sort of potential problem, you are supposed to distinguish the target audience right before determining which hosting provider you are going to avail services from. Better choose the data center that is located nearest to your audience as it can reduce latency problems.

3. Optimize Your Databases

The website loading speed particularly depends upon database optimization. Initially, the website database answers all queries in less/no time but with time, the site database starts to accumulate data. This compiling of unwanted information ends up in a huge amount of stored data. There are several methods to optimize your site’s database to enhance overall performance. If you tend to use WordPress then you need to identify the slow query with a query analyzer. When you are done finding the lagging area, start functioning on optimization.

4. Retain WordPress Lightweight

You to create beautiful websites easily. It has appealing themes and numerous plugins for customizing. However, be careful not to overload your theme as it can slow down response time.

As we know WordPress allows its users to devise their websites quite easily. It comprises many engaging themes as well as plugins for the customization of your website. Although, you have to be careful with your theme because it can be a reason, affecting server response time.  

If you tend to use a WP template, try to be as simple as you can, choose lightweight templates, and do not add too many plugins. Likewise, delete the ones that are still unused and disable the plugins that utilize CPU. Analyze which plugin is responsible for slowing your webpage with the help of any website monitoring tool.

5. Screen PHP Usage

The more procedures a server needs to perform to load the page for a site viewer, the slower it will end up. If someone is operating PHP content, make sure that it isn’t spending fundamental resources satisfying pointless tasks.

Ensure that PHP is up to date. Most of the web host providers don’t do any automatic PHP updates. A site yet operational on PHP 5 will have a slower response time than one working on PHP version 7. You can find which variant you consist of with the help of the PHP Compatibility Checker module. If important, move up to a more up-to-date form via cPanel or by reaching your hosting supplier.

6. Configure Caching

Caching is accountable for fast content delivery to site visitors. the browser demands resources from the relevant server every time the page stacks instead of loading them from a nearby or delegate reserve.

There are many WordPress modules available that allow the storage of files and data locally on a client’s PC. The records are then reprocessed in future site visits. This process is called caching. It accelerates stacking time and guarantees good UX.

7. Minify Scripts

Minification is lessening the size of the website’s code. You can minimize this by evacuating long and redundant variables, comments, and unwanted characters.

JavaScript, external files, and CSS develop the page and impact how quickly it will be served. The act of minifying and compacting contents is a prominent arrangement when managing records. It keeps a lot of information accessible yet doesn’t give the amount a chance to affect site performance.

Distribute CSS and JS files as internal or external, because of their significance and size. Improve the response time by setting little records internally, as a component of the HTML record. At last, make equivocal documents simpler to store by keeping them outside.

8. Choosing the Right Webserver

More or less… You can fundamentally enhance average server response time by transitioning your web server programming or by designing it much better.

If you possess sufficient resources, pay somebody to design. If you have limited or no cash, at that point you should read them and choose for yourself. I would state one of the amazing benefits that somebody with no cash has over huge organizations, is the capacity to change, learn, and experiment. Picking the right web server can improve numerous other page speed issues in a single step and might significantly reduce site loading speed. It portrays that you need to learn and examine.

9. Eliminate Widgets in Footer/Sidebar

It is quite obvious to have plenty of widgets within your sidebar. That can be an opt-in form or a search box, it can also be a popular blog post, and so on. Well, my advice for you is to remove all of them because all of these widgets require a lot of time to load, incorporating significant milliseconds in the overall load time.

Look here is the best thing: a sidebar, like a footer, is termed to be a site-wide component. That also means these widgets need to be processed on each page across one’s website. Telling you my personal experience, by doing this I shaved 2 seconds off my total load time.

10. Defer Unused CSS

Ever gone through the Google Page Insights test?

If yes, then you might have seen a recommendation for the ‘defer unused CSS’. It messes up the web pages and also makes them load very slowly. Well, you don’t have to worry about it as you can easily remove them manually or there is an option for you to use any plugin that cleanses your code, generating faster-loading web pages.

Most Intriguing Web Servers Across the Internet

Are you utilizing the correct web server program? There are a few options available, and the majority of them are for free. Here are a couple of the more famous ones that I experienced.

• Apache
• Nginx
• Litespeed

Regardless of which web server program you are currently utilizing, it can certainly change better for your reasons. if you don’t have technical knowledge about your web server to design it, you ought to most likely contract somebody to support you. It can get truly definite.

Apache

Apache is one of the most utilized and free web servers across the network. Since it is utilized a lot, it likewise appreciates incredible documentation. A quite decent part of instructional tutorials on the internet might assume you have Apache since it was utilized by pretty much every site not very far in the past. Well, Apache’s default install isn’t the best entertainer, however, it has such huge numbers of clients and modules and additional items that it very well may be made to do pretty much anything. 

Our objective until further notice is to improve server response time, as Apache here is exceptionally configurable and many individuals realize how to do it. Apache is a sure thing for pretty much any site, yet it must be designed well by an educated individual to put forth a valiant effort. Php runs at a normal pace

Nginx

Like Apache, it is also free and it is the sweetheart of many high-traffic sites and for web engineers since it performs like a fantasy even in its default installation. Nginx utilizes fewer assets and can eventually handle more traffic than any other web server out there. Nginx normally has the quickest server reaction time as far as I can tell. PHP functions are quick with Nginx.

Litespeed

The best thing about Litespeed is paid versions and free versions. It is a lot quicker and functions much better than Apache, along with the additional advantage of being perfect with Apache. Any designs you make to Apache are regarded by Litespeed and it utilizes a similar file of .ht access as Apache. This concludes that moving to Litespeed is truly effortless for Apache clients. PHP functions multiple times quickly with Litespeed.

Server Response Time & Website Performance

Site performance is as significant as having a site for organizations nowadays. A slow-loading site makes site visitors baffled who might just avoid the site and may not return. Thus, website loading speed becomes one of the most vital components in detecting your website performance.

Server reaction time projects site speed. Server reaction time is said to be the time required by the server to react to the customer’s solicitation. While there can be numerous different purposes behind the low speed of your site and moderate reacting web server can be one of them. Whatever the degree of programming and web structuring that you do to your site, if the principal server is handling the solicitations at a moderate pace, the exhibition of the site will be influenced.

Numerous studies reveal that the maximum hold-up time of site guests is just around two seconds. A site taking any more time than 2s to load will make a negative impression of a site just as the organization, among its site visitors. It not only outcomes in the loss of a deal or lead at that time, it likewise may make the guest never visit your site again. Some web crawlers consider the page loading speed of a site among numerous components, so a slow-responding site can end up with low SE rankings.

Elements that affect server reaction time: There are a few factors that may affect server reaction time. A web server is an unpredictable machine with various applications and top-of-the-line equipment segments. An insufficiency in the working of any of these assets will just affect the working of the web server and in this way, its reaction time. There can be outer factors too like DoS assaults, power blackouts, high website traffic, data transfer capacity confinements, or even characteristic cataclysms that can result in more slow server reaction time.

Conclusion

Screen web server performance routinely: The effect of slower server reaction time on site execution isn’t something that can be disregarded. Well, it isn’t even conceivable to dispose of the variables that caused it. Consequently, the most ideal approach to deal with this issue is to ceaselessly screen the web-server performance. Thus, you will be cautioned on why and when a server is making the site slow down. Further, regular monitoring empowers you to take care of the issue when it emerges. Deferred activity may influence other useful zones and at last make a significant issue, which might be hard to determine. Thus, taking important activities at the opportune time will diminish the effect of on-site execution. 

While a well-resourced server can give your site a focused edge by empowering quick execution, it is difficult to foresee whether your server will perform at its best consistently. As numerous components can affect the reaction time of your web server, consistent checking is required to monitor it.