Do you want to cognize really your tract will execute successful lawsuit of a postulation surge?
Stress testing a WordPress website will show really your website will execute nether different situations. This way, you tin guarantee accelerated capacity and resoluteness immoderate issues.
In this article, we will show you really to accent trial a WordPress website.
What is simply a WordPress Stress Test?
A WordPress accent trial lets you spot really your website will execute successful high-traffic situations. It helps you hole for spikes successful postulation and spot really your tract handles nan load.
Usually, nan magnitude of postulation a website tin withstand is wished by your WordPress hosting plan. However, accent testing helps find these limits and uncovers issues that mightiness hap owed to precocious traffic.
For instance, a abrupt spike successful postulation tin origin your tract to clang and utilize each nan server resources. Similarly, you tin besides spot which WordPress plugins, themes, codification snippets, and images malfunction successful utmost conditions.
With accent testing, you tin easy hole immoderate issues aliases correct a mounting that mightiness beryllium misconfigured. As a result, you’ll connection a amended personification acquisition and beryllium prepared for high-traffic situations.
That said, let’s spot really to accent trial a WordPress website.
Stress Testing a WordPress Website
When it comes to measuring nan capacity of your WordPress website, you’ll find tons of speed test tools, for illustration PageSpeed Insights, Pingdom, aliases GTmetrix.
While these devices thief find retired really accelerated your tract loads, they don’t show you really a website will execute nether precocious traffic.
To accent a WordPress site, we’ll beryllium utilizing Loader.io for this tutorial. It is simply a free instrumentality that simulates high-traffic situations and performs a bid of tests.
Sign Up for a Free Loader.io Account
First, you’ll request to sojourn nan Loader.io website and create a free account. Simply click nan ‘Sign Up Now’ fastener to get started.
After that, you will spot different pricing plans offered by nan tool.
Go up and prime nan ‘Free’ pricing plan.
Next, you tin participate specifications to motion up for a caller account.
Loader.io will inquire for a institution name, email address, and password. Once you’ve added these details, simply cheque nan reCaptcha container and click nan ‘Sign Up’ button.
You besides person a verification email. Simply cheque your inbox and click nan nexus successful nan email to verify your account.
Adding a New Host to Loader.io
After that, you tin group up a target big by clicking nan ‘+ New Host’ button.
Next, you’ll request to participate your domain name.
Once that’s done, simply click nan ‘Next: Verify’ button.
Next, you will request to verify your domain. You tin do this by verifying complete HTTP aliases DNS.
For this tutorial, we will usage nan ‘Verify complete HTTP’ action and download nan verification file. Go up and click nan ‘download’ nexus and prevention nan record connected your computer.
After downloading nan file, you’ll request to upload it to your site’s guidelines folder. This is usually called nan ‘public_html’ folder.
To upload nan file, you tin usage an FTP client. For much details, please spot our guideline connected how to usage FTP to upload files to WordPress.
After uploading nan file, you tin return to nan Loader.io website and click nan ‘Verify’ button.
Upon verification, you should spot a occurrence message.
Next, you’ll request to click nan ‘New Test’ fastener and group up a accent trial for your website.
Configuring Your Stress Test Settings
On nan adjacent screen, you tin alteration nan settings for your accent test. You tin commencement by adding a sanction for your test.
After that, you’ll request to prime nan trial type. Loader.io offers 3 trial types, which include:
- Clients per test – In this, you tin trial really your tract will activity erstwhile a circumstantial number of visitors sojourn your tract for a specified magnitude of time. You tin group nan number of clients and nan duration.
- Clients per second – This script will trial your tract for a specified number of customer requests per second.
- Maintain customer load – Under this trial type, a changeless customer count is maintained passim nan long of nan test. It accent tests your tract erstwhile location is simply a changeless load for a circumstantial time.
We would urge moving aggregate tests utilizing each of these types. This will thief uncover immoderate issues that your tract mightiness brushwood nether different scenarios.
If you scroll down, past you’ll spot Client Requests settings. For wide testing, we urge utilizing nan default settings and you don’t request to alteration anything.
Now, you’re fresh to accent trial your WordPress site. Go up and click nan ‘Run test’ button.
Analyze Your Stress Test Results
Loader.io will tally nan accent trial for your website and compile nan results. You tin past analyse them to spot really your tract performs nether high-traffic situations.
For instance, you tin commencement by looking astatine nan mean consequence time. The little nan consequence time, nan faster your website’s loading speed.
In our testing, nan mean consequence clip was 590 milliseconds aliases 0.59 seconds erstwhile 250 clients visited nan tract for 1 minute.
This is reasonably decent reference and shows that nan website didn’t slow down considerably nether precocious load.
However, nan maximum consequence clip recorded was 10489 sclerosis aliases 10.489 seconds. You tin now look astatine nan chart beneath to spot erstwhile nan consequence clip jumps compared to nan number of clients.
For instance, our testing showed that location was a spike erstwhile nan number of clients exceeded 150 and nan maximum consequence clip was seen erstwhile nan number of clients almost reached 200.
Using these insights, you will person a unsmooth thought of really your tract will execute erstwhile a definite number of group sojourn it.
You tin now repetition this measurement and tally aggregate tests utilizing different scenarios. For instance, effort expanding nan number of clients, testing nan duration, and usage different trial types.
Tips to Improve Response Time & Boost Performance
If WordPress load tests show slow capacity nether high-traffic situations, past you tin effort different things to velocity up your site.
Here are immoderate tips for improving consequence clip and handling precocious postulation load:
1. Upgrade Your WordPress Hosting Plan – If you’re utilizing a hosting scheme that has limits connected nan number of visitors per month, past see upgrading to a higher hosting plan. This way, you’ll get much server resources and your tract tin grip other postulation erstwhile location is simply a spike. You tin besides spot our elaborate comparison of nan fastest WordPress hosting services to study more.
2. Use a Caching Plugin – A caching plugin reduces nan load connected your site’s server and helps amended performance. It serves a fixed type of nan tract to users alternatively of going done nan full process of requesting a webpage. As a result, your tract loads faster and you supply a amended personification experience.
3. Set Up a Content Delivery Network (CDN) – A CDN is simply a web of servers that present cached fixed contented to users based connected their location. It helps little nan load connected your tract server and amended nan consequence time.
4. Optimize Your Images and Videos – Unoptimized images tin lead to capacity issues connected your tract and summation load connected nan server. To start, you tin compress ample image files to little consequence time. If you’re hosting videos connected your site, past see uploading them to YouTube aliases Vimeo and embedding them successful your content.
5. Remove Unused Plugins and Themes – If you person WordPress plugins and themes that are not successful usage aliases are resource-heavy, past see removing them. They tin slow down your WordPress tract by loading unused scripts and utilizing a batch of server resources.
For much tips connected improving your site’s performance, please spot our guideline to boost WordPress Speed and Performance.
We dream this article helped you study really to accent trial a WordPress website. You whitethorn besides want to spot our guideline connected nan most communal WordPress errors and really to hole them, and ultimate guideline to WordPress SEO.
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About nan Editorial Staff
Editorial Staff astatine WPBeginner is simply a squad of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi pinch complete 16 years of acquisition successful WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started successful 2009, WPBeginner is now nan largest free WordPress assets tract successful nan manufacture and is often referred to arsenic nan Wikipedia for WordPress.