- DNS Lookup: When a user enters a website URL, the browser needs to translate the domain name into its corresponding IP address. DNS lookup time refers to the time it takes to complete this process.
- Connection Time: Once the browser knows the server's IP address, it establishes a connection with the server. Connection time is the time it takes to establish this connection.
- SSL Handshake: If the website uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) / TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption, the browser and server need to perform an SSL handshake to establish a secure, encrypted connection. SSL handshake time refers to the time it takes to complete this process.
- Server Processing: After the connection is established, the server begins processing the browser's request. Server processing time is the time it takes for the server to process the request and prepare to return the webpage.
- Data Transfer: Once the server is ready to respond, it sends the page content back to the browser. Data transfer time is the time it takes from the server sending the page data to the browser receiving it completely.
- Total Time: Total time is the overall time from when the browser starts requesting the page to when the page is fully loaded and displayed, including the total sum of times for all the above steps.
Understanding each of these steps helps in analyzing and optimizing website speed performance, enhancing user experience, and improving the website's search engine optimization (SEO) rankings.
GZIP Compression
GZIP is a widely used data compression algorithm primarily applied to compress HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and other files transmitted between web servers and browsers. It significantly reduces file sizes, speeds up page load times, enhances user experience, and contributes positively to SEO rankings. By reducing data transfer sizes, GZIP compression helps minimize bandwidth usage and improves page load times, which are critical factors for search engine crawlers in ranking websites.
Brotli Compression
Brotli is a next-generation data compression algorithm developed by Google. It offers higher compression efficiency compared to GZIP, particularly for text-based files like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Brotli compression further reduces file sizes, providing faster decompression speeds and superior compression ratios compared to GZIP. Despite being relatively newer, Brotli is widely supported by modern browsers and web servers, making it a crucial strategy for optimizing website performance and SEO. Implementing Brotli compression can significantly improve website loading speeds and overall user satisfaction, thereby enhancing SEO performance and user retention.