Introduction¶

This document provides instructions on how to add and configure the Performance add-on.

Contact the Support Team to activate the Performance add-on.

The IP addresses used for the Performance add-on are:

EU: 35.205.195.161
US: 35.192.89.240
AU: 35.244.113.9
Asia: 34.126.69.123.

Instructions¶

This section provides information on how to set up the Performance add-on to improve performance issues on a website.

1. Click Performance (the gauge icon), on the main toolbar of your domain.

   

   The Performance dashboard page opens. If no pages are present, or if a page is missing, click Add New Page.

Add a new page¶

1. Click Add New Page.

   Note

   A new page can only be added if it has been scanned at least once, and the page must exist in the current scan inventory.

   

   The New Performance Page opens.

   
2. Select page to scan: Begin typing to locate a page to select. The list populates with matches.
3. Select a page row from the list to scan.
   • Click a page link on the list results to view the page as a visitor.
4. Visitor profile

   1. Click the drop-down arrow. The profiles list expands.

      
   2. Select a visitor profile from the list. Choose as many as needed.
   3. Alternatively, add a new visitor profile with the Add Profile button. See the Add a New Profile section below for instructions.
5. The Summary pane updates with details about the selections:
   • URL: The URL to the page.
   • Scan Frequency: The frequency of the scan.
   • Visitor Profile (if selected).
6. Click Save to save the new page.

Add a new profile¶

This section provides instructions for admin users on how to add a new profile to the list during new page creation.

1. Click Admin Settings (gear icon) at the top of the Domain Overview page.

   

   The Domain Settings page opens.

2. Select Performance, on the left menu.

   

   Alternatively, to navigate to this page during the New Page Creation steps, click Add Profile.

   

   The Profile Setup pane opens.

3. Fill in the details for the new user profile:
   • Name: Enter a name for the profile.
   • Description: Enter a description for the profile.
   • Device: Select the device from the selection (Desktop or Mobile).
   • Connection Profile: Click the drop-down arrow and select from the list:
     • Cable
     • 3G Regular
     • 4G Slow
     • DSL
     • LTE.
4. Measure from: Click the drop-down arrow and select a geographical location to measure the connection from.
5. Click Save. The profile saves and the pane closes. The New Performance Page pane is shown.
6. Review the Summary section.
7. Click Save to apply the profile to the website.

Add a new profile to an existing page¶

This section gives instructions on how to add a new profile to the list from an existing page.

1. On the same row as an existing page, click Actions and select Edit from the expanded menu.

   

   The New Performance Page opens.

2. Click Add Profile.

   

   The Profile Setup pane opens.

3. Fill in the details for the new user profile:
   • Name: Enter a name for the profile.
   • Description: Enter a description for the profile.
   • Device: Select the device from the selection (Desktop or Mobile).
   • Connection Profile: Click the drop-down arrow and select from the list:
     • Cable
     • 3G Regular
     • 4G Slow
     • DSL
     • LTE.
4. Measure from: Click the drop-down arrow and select a geographical location to measure the connection from.
5. Click Save. The profile saves and the pane closes. The New Performance Page pane is shown.
6. Review the Summary section.
7. Click Save to apply the profile to the website.

Edit visitor profile¶

This section provides instructions on how to edit a profile.

1. On the same row as an existing page, click Actions and select Edit from the expanded menu.

   

   The New Performance Page opens.

2. Click the drop-down arrow in the Visitor Profile section. The profiles list expands.

   
3. Select the visitor profile to edit.

4. In the Visitor Profile Details section, click the three dots menu. The options expand.

   
5. Select one of the following options:
   • Remove Profile: This option removes the profile from the page.
   • Set as Default: Set this profile as the default profile for the page.​
6. Save the changes.

Edit an existing page¶

This section provides information on how to edit an existing Performance Page.

1. On the same row as an existing page, click Actions and select Edit from the expanded menu.

   

   The Edit Performance Page opens.

2. Edit the scan frequency as needed.

   

   The selections are:

   • Four times a day
   • Twice a day
   • Once a day
   • Once a week (recommended).

3. Edit the visitor profile as needed.

   

   The actions you can take are:

   • Use the drop-down arrow to select an existing visitor profile.
   • Click Add Profile to add a new visitor profile.

4. In the Visitor Profile Details section, click the three dots menu. The options expand.

   
5. Select one of the following options:
   • Remove Profile: This option removes the profile from the page.
   • Set as Default: Set this profile as the default profile for the page.
6. Save the changes.

Performance Dashboard¶

This section describes the functions and information on the performance landing page. The pages that are available in the Performance module are displayed in a list.

• Search: Click in the dialog box and type a search parameter.
• URL list: Click a page URL. The Page Details page opens.

  • Open in: At the top of the pane just below the heading, select a method to open the page in (default is the tool view):

    
    • CMS (if used, the name of the CMS shows here): Click to view the page via the CMS.

    • Redirect to Page (magnifying glass icon): Click to navigate to the page URL and view the page as an external visitor.

      Tip: If it is installed, use the Acquia Optimize Web Browser Extension to identify the placement of the errors on the page, repair the errors, and more.

      For more information, see the user guide article:

      Web browser extension.

    • Re-scan this page (refresh icon): Click to rescan the current page at any time.
• The page is divided into sections:
  • The top section gives information on the selected profile:

    • Viewing as profile: This shows the profile that is being used.

      For more information, see the Add profile section of this document.

    • Device: The type of device used.
    • Measure from: Distance from the server location.
    • Network speed: The speed of the network.
    • Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
    • Important

      The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that changing the profile causes the numbers on all 3 sections in the Performance module to update accordingly.

  • Performance score: On the same row as a URL, this score is a quick visual of site performance.
    • Score donut: This chart shows the percentage of performance criteria that the page meets.
    • Timeline: Displays a graph of the last 8 scans.
  • Opportunities by priority: Shows the number of checks done/remaining and the total number of checks, sorted from high to low priority. See also the difficulty level of the issues.

  • User loading experience: This section contains:

    

    • Graph that shows user loading experience. The data is arranged per date and shows metrics for:

      • First contentful paint (FCP)
      • Largest contentful paint (LCP)
      • Speed Index (SI)
      • Total Blocking Time (TBT)
      • Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

      For more information about these metrics scores, see the external site:

      Chrome Performance Audits (Metrics).

    • Load times trend: A chart shows the user loading experience on a visual performance timeline that identifies when FCP, FMP, and TTI occur. Also provided is a breakdown of load time trends, detailing the average FMP, FCP, and TTI.

Opportunities¶

From the menu on the left, select Opportunities: This section shows areas on the page that can be improved to boost the load speed and improve performance. The suggestions provided are highly targeted and include examples. See recommendations for improvement, as well as documentation from Google resources.

• The top section gives information on the profile that is used:

  • Viewing as Profile: This shows the profile that is being used.

    For more information, see the Add profile section of this document.

  • Device: The type of device used.
  • Measure from: Distance from the server location.
  • Network speed: The speed of the network.
  • Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
• Important

  The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that when you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections inside the Performance module update accordingly.

• Sort between: Select the criteria for the list to show:
  • Errors: Sort the list to show only errors that can be remedied to improve performance.
  • Passed: Sort the list for Passed opportunities.
• Export: Click Export. The current page is downloaded locally in CSV format.
• Search: Begin typing to search the list of opportunities.

The list results have the following columns:

• Audit: The name of the opportunity and a short description of improvements.
  • Learn More: Click to redirect to the Google Lighthouse external page with advanced information and details about the opportunity, as well as instructions and methods that can help improve performance scores.
• Difficulty: Level of difficulty to implement the improvement.
• Priority: Priority level of the issue.
• Details: Each row has this button. Click to view the audit details for the opportunity. Provides a list of highly specific suggestions that can help improve site performance and speed. Click Learn More to navigate to external internet resources for advanced help.
  • URL: The URL where the issue is located.
  • Size: The size of the image/file.
  • Potential savings: The savings that can be achieved if the suggested fix is done.

Opportunities that can appear: Follow the external links below for the definition of each opportunity, as provided by Google Lighthouse. Information and links to each opportunity definition, as well as suggested fixes, are available in Acquia Optimize for each opportunity that is flagged.

• Eliminate render-blocking resources
• Properly size images
• Defer offscreen images
• Minify CSS
• Minify JavaScript
• Remove unused CSS
• Efficiently encode images
• Serve images in modern formats
• Enable text compression
• Preconnect to required origins
• Reduce server response times (TTFB)
• Avoid multiple page redirects
• Preload key requests
• Use video formats for animated content
• Reduce the impact of third-party code
• Avoid non-composited animations
• Lazy load third-party resources with facades.

Diagnostics¶

From the menu on the left, select Diagnostics. This feature flags particular issues that can potentially slow the loading times. View the exact problem, how it impacts the webpage, and why the fix is needed.

• The top section gives information on the profile that is being used for the results shown:

  • Viewing as Profile: This shows the profile that is being used.

    For more information, see the Add profile section in this document.

  • Device: The type of device used.
  • Measure from: Distance from the server location.
  • Network speed: The speed of the network.
  • Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
  • Important

    The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that when you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections inside the Performance module update accordingly.

• Sort for:
  • Errors
  • Passed.
• Export: Click Export. The current page is downloaded locally in CSV format.
• Search: Begin typing to search the list of opportunities.

The list results have the following columns:

• Audit: The name of the audit check that needs improvement.
• Difficulty: Level of difficulty to implement the improvement.
• Priority: Priority level of the issue.
• Details: Click to view the audit details for diagnostics.
• Diagnostics that can appear: Follow the external links below for information from Google Lighthouse on the definition of each diagnostic. Information and links to each definition, as well as suggested fixes, are also available in Acquia Optimize for each diagnostics check that is flagged.
  • Avoid enormous network payloads
  • Serve static assets with an efficient cache policy
  • Avoid an excessive DOM size
  • Avoid chaining critical requests
  • User Timing marks and measures
  • Reduce JavaScript execution time
  • Minimize main thread work
  • Ensure text remains visible during webfont load
  • Keep request counts low and transfer sizes small.

History¶

From the menu on the left, select History. This page shows the historical status of website performance. Scores from all past scans are available to help you analyze and view trends.

• The topmost section gives information on the profile that is being used for the results shown.
  • Viewing as Profile: This shows the profile that is being used. See Add Profile for information on how to add a new profile.
  • Device: The type of device used.
  • Measure from: Distance from the server location.
  • Network speed: The speed of the network.
  • Check frequency: The frequency of the check.
  • Important

    The Dashboard always shows data with the default profile selected. To change this, select a new profile (click the drop-down arrow to see the available profiles). Please be aware that when you change the profile, the numbers on all three sections inside the Performance module will update accordingly.

• Graph with performance speed and date as well as a donut chart showing the average performance score.

• Scan history results: This table shows valuable scan data from previous scans.

  • Scanned at: Date and time of scan.
  • Performance Pages: Number of pages scanned for performance issues.
  • Avg. Performance Score: The average of the overall performance score percentage. This is a weighted average of the metric scores, which means that some metrics have more impact on your overall Performance score. This figure is calculated in the background, it is not an average of the statistics in the shown categories.
  • Avg. First contentful paint (FCP): Milliseconds with diff since the last scan. First content paint marks the time at which the first text or image is painted by measuring how long it takes the browser to render the first piece of DOM content after a user navigates to your page.
  • Avg. Largest contentful paint (LCP): This metric represents the time duration between the user initiating the page load and the page rendering its primary content.
  • Avg. Speed Index (SI): This metric shows the speed at which the content on a page is visibly populated.
  • Avg. Total Blocking Time (TBT): This is the sum of all time periods between FCP and Time to Interactive when the task length exceeds 50ms, expressed in milliseconds.
  • Avg. Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): This is the measurement of the movement of visible elements within the viewport.

  For more information, see the user guide article:

  History center.

Additional resources¶

The IP addresses used for the Performance Module are:

EU: 35.205.195.161
US: 35.192.89.240
AU: 35.244.113.9
Asia: 34.126.69.123.

For more information on how performance scores are calculated, visit these external links:

• Google WebDev Performance Audits
• Lighthouse performance scoring
• Lighthouse scoring calculator
• Chrome Performance Audits (Metrics)