Speed metrics in Google Analytics

DEC 20, 2011

By Satish Kambala, Staff Software Engineer

At Google we believe that speed matters and a faster web is better for everyone. That’s why we started the Make The Web Faster initiative. To improve the speed of a website, we need to measure how fast web pages load. The Site Speed report, which is now available by default to all users of Google Analytics, provides just that: it enables website owners to measure page load time for their web pages.

You can use the Site Speed report to correlate speed with other metrics in Google Analytics, such as page views and conversions. This enables website owners to identify and optimize those pages that drive these metrics. Page load times can be analyzed by browser type or user location to understand if specific optimizations are required. Recently, we enhanced the Site Speed report by adding a new section called Technical (see screenshot below) which displays network and server time components of page load time.

You can learn more about the Site Speed report here. This report, along with powerful page speed analysis tools such as Page Speed Online, will help website owners delight their users by building fast and responsive websites.

Have ideas on how to make your website faster or ways to speed up the entire Web? Send us your thoughts.

Satish Kambala works at Google on stuff that helps in making the web faster. In his free time, apart from watching cricket and movies, Satish likes exploring places with his wife.

Posted by Scott Knaster, Editor