Performance testing – is your website ready for people?

Ready to launch a killer marketing campaign? You’ve got the skills, a top team, and an amazing product, and your website’s prepared to go. But, before you rush into anything - are you really sure your site is traffic-ready?

Testing the performance of your website can make sure there are no unexpected hiccups along the way so that when you make that first impression, it’s a great one.

Below, we’ll help you discover why performance testing is an essential part of launching any marketing campaign, and how professional performance testing services can help to ensure your campaign hits its mark.

What is performance testing?

Performance testing is an all-encompassing name for a variety of tests that check the functionality of your website or system.

Each type of test, rating from stress testing to scalability testing, focuses on a different aspect of performance and provides you with an individualized data set that tells you about the functionality of your website.

In knowing how it performs, you’ll be better prepared to launch lead-generating marketing campaigns. You’ll check that it is ready to meet the needs of your potential clients, and exactly how much traffic it can accommodate.

Types of performance testing

Performance testing stands for a number of tests, each with its specific function. Let’s learn more about what they are and what exactly they test for.

Load testing
This examines just how efficiently your website performs under a particular load. It measures the response of the system and evaluates how it would perform in a real-life scenario when your clients start visiting the website.

Stress testing
Putting pressure on a system lets you see where the cracks are. Stress testing illuminates the upper limits of your website before it goes public.

Volume testing
Adding more and more data to a system, like your website, can improve the experience by offering your clients more. However, it can also affect just how productive your site is. Volume testing lets you detect how much is too much.

Scalability testing
The aim of a business is to grow; stagnation is not exactly a healthy sign. But how much can your website potentially grow? Scalability testing examines how well your website can cope with increased processing powers or any architecture changes, and how far it can scale.

Stability testing
You want your system to work and be able to take the heat even when a million people visit your website concurrently. You also want your website stay stable under such circumstances. This is what stability testing is all about, checking if your website have the longevity and endurance to make it.

Configuration testing
Once your site is up and running, it’s only natural that you might want to make a few changes. However, what might seem like a small edit can have significant consequences to your site. Configuration testing helps to avoid this by discovering problems in advance and verifying that configurations don’t affect your software operation.

So, why test?

You wouldn’t buy a car without taking it for a test drive, would you? Firstly, you need to check that the engine runs smoothly, that you’re comfortable with its performance, and that there are no hidden defects. It’s all pretty basic.

The same goes for your website. Performance testing helps you check all is running as it should be before you launch that costly marketing campaign. These are the top three reasons why you need to test:

1. First impressions matter
We all know how frustrating it is when a website doesn’t work; you get excited by a product or services, you click on the link, and suddenly a 404 or other error message appears––not cool.

Testing before you go live ensures that when your website (or your campaign) is launched, all is working as expected.

After all, even one negative experience can have a huge impact. It’s been proven that a negative first impression almost guarantees a person won’t try your product or service again. So, get it right the first time around.

2. Mistakes happen
It’s true: mistakes do happen. But what’s also true is that the time to fix them is now, before you air your dirty laundry in public.

Performance testing gives you two opportunities. First, to explore how your website will look in real life, and second, you’ll get the chance to catch little nuances that will put a damper on customer experience - such as bugs, errors, bottlenecks, and the like.

So, take the time, learn from your mistakes, and get your launch right.

3. Marketing is costly
Let’s not count this one out. One of the critical factors behind any marketing campaign is its budget.

Any marketing campaign has a financial cap you shouldn’t go over. You need to optimize your spending, yet errors in your website can prove costly in you’ve already spent a huge chunk of your budget.

This is especially fatal if your company is a startup and your finances are particularly limited. That’s why it’s essential you test first and launch later.

How do I know if my website is up to the test?

Now that you know a little more about performance testing and why you need to do it, it’s time to talk about one key element - how do you know that your system has “passed” the test?

Knowing you’ve made the grade is individual to every company. You have specific goals for everything else, and performance testing requires it too. That said, there are a number of essential factors you may want to consider before you start testing.

Let’s start with your business strategy. This process defines who your clients are, how many you want there to be, and how you want them to know about you. Once you have these basic principles in mind, you can build your testing strategy to find out if it is logistically possible to get there, and if not, how to fix it.

Secondly, you need to look for the key performance indicators (KPI) that are definitive goals within your business. They may be short-term or long-term, but in general, they help you track your progress as you go. Such KPIs can become your performance test benchmarks.

Last but not least, here comes error finding. It’s one thing to ensure your system has the potential to meet the goals and expectations set out, but it’s another to make sure it does it correctly. Testing for errors such as bugs, bottlenecks, and other experience-ruining factors ensures that when your website goes live or when you launch that killer campaign, there’ll be fewer expected surprises along the way. Ultimately, this will let you focus on something more important––your clients.