{"id":126272,"date":"2025-03-03T09:48:37","date_gmt":"2025-03-03T15:48:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/support\/?post_type=support&p=126272"},"modified":"2025-11-21T08:29:52","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T14:29:52","slug":"performance-insights","status":"publish","type":"support","link":"https:\/\/wpengine.com\/support\/performance-insights\/","title":{"rendered":"Performance Insights"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We have done a lot of work to understand what is really important when it comes to the performance of your website. We\u2019ve identified metrics that we think are vital to performance and we\u2019ll go over why we think each is important and steps you can take to improve each metric.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research tells us that customers are more loyal to trustworthy, easy-to-use sites. This perception is heavily influenced by the speed of your site. Based on Google\u2019s experimental results, we know that sites that can deliver content in 800ms are perceptibly faster than those that take 1500ms. While each customer is different, many don\u2019t trust sites that consistently take over four seconds to load.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Access the Performance Insights Page<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To access the performance insights page for an environment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. On the Sites<\/a> page of the User Portal, click on the environment name that you want to view.
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  2. Expand the Insights<\/strong> section in the secondary left hand menu, and select Performance<\/strong>.
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    You can also see your Google Lighthouse scores on the performance page by selecting the Google Lighthouse<\/strong> tab as shown below. Read more about your Google Lighthouse scores<\/a>.

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    WP Engine Site Performance Score<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Our site performance score is a metric that assigns an overall health score to your website\u2019s performance based on metrics that we think are key in delivering a great experience to your visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


    \"Screenshot<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Why the WP Engine Site Performance Score is Important<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    WP Engine\u2019s site performance score evaluates whether a site\u2019s typical performance meets customer expectations, and whether the site is well suited to handle unexpected bursts of traffic. We benchmark site speed against Google\u2019s Page Rank recommendations, and compare site scalability to various other WordPress sites to compute the site score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If your site sees typical web traffic, the site score is an indication of how well your visitors are served and consequently, how long they are likely to stay on your site and how likely they are to return. While a high score alone will not guarantee high page ranking, a low score will likely hurt your page ranking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    For certain types of sites the site score may be less relevant. This is especially true in instances where all site users require a log in, for sites that never experience viral traffic, or sites that do not prioritize high page ranking in search results. If your site falls into one of these more niche categories, you may choose not to rely on the site score as an overall indicator and instead focus on the individual metrics that are most relevant for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    How the WP Engine Site Performance Score is Calculated<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    The site score combines your WordPress latency and your site cacheability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Note<\/p><\/div>

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    The latency is measured from our servers and not from CDN servers.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

    In order to determine your WP Engine site performance score we generate an underlying latency score and cache score over a 7-day look back period, and combine those metrics into a single value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The minimum traffic threshold for a single day to have enough data to generate a score is currently 150 page requests. New sites will start showing a site performance score, 7 days after the first day that the site reaches the minimum traffic threshold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The latency score is determined by a curve based on Google\u2019s page scoring practices and further informed by our knowledge of unique WordPress performance characteristics. The score thresholds are based on Google\u2019s thresholds for latency<\/a>. The scores are designed using Google\u2019s scoring practices<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The cacheability score is based on the percentage of page requests that are served from (Varnish) page caches. This is a simple ranking from 0 to 100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The below table reflects how these two factors, latency and cacheability, are combined to derive an overall score. Please note that this distribution may change as we continue to evolve the score to better reflect the most relevant evaluation of site performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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    Steps to Improve the WP Engine Site Performance Score<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    For some sites, a fair site score might suffice. If reduced latency, improved ability to handle traffic spikes, and higher page rankings are important for a given site, then improving the site score is a good proxy to improving those aspects of your site performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Review the steps below for improving Average Latency<\/a> and Cache Hit Ratio<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>\n\n\n\n<\/a>\n\n\n\n

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    Page Requests During Busiest Hour<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Page requests during busiest hour reflects the maximum number of page requests that your site received in the busiest hour of the last evaluated day. Higher concurrent page requests may require more site optimization or resources to serve traffic effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    Why Page Requests during Busiest Hour is Important<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Assessing page requests received during the busiest hour on your site is important to understand how to best scale your site, and to use as a potential indicator of unwanted bot traffic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Scaling the site<\/strong>:
    If a majority of your traffic is arriving over a few hours, then the hourly traffic will be a large percentage of the daily traffic. Sites that have a busy time of day need to be scaled to meet peak demand (much like designing roads to accommodate rush hour traffic).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Indicator of unwanted bot traffic<\/strong>:
    Many websites receive the majority of their traffic from a limited number of timezones, so their traffic is naturally higher during certain times of the day and lower at others. It’s very rare for a website to have equal human traffic across all 24 hours of the day. If a site’s peak traffic hour gets close to 1\/24 of daily traffic, it might be a sign that the traffic isn’t from real people. This would be a good time to check your     access logs<\/a> for unwanted bot traffic hitting your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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    How Page Requests during Busiest Hour is Calculated<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    We measure hourly page requests. For each 24-hour period, we take the highest hourly page requests number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Note<\/p><\/div>

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    Page requests are different from billable visits. Read more about billable visits here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a>\n\n\n\n

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    Steps to Improve Maximum Concurrent Page Requests<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    If your site is receiving a large number of requests during peak, it is important to make your site as efficient as possible. During high traffic, your caches should expire less often. If your cache hit ratio is low, find out why. For pages that are not served from cache, improve the page latency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n