Load Tests

Load tests are performed by testing the website using the best estimate of the traffic your website needs to support. Consider this a “real world test” of the website.

The first step is to define the maximum time it should take (from a usability and customer experience standpoint, not a technical one) for a page to load. Once you have determined this, you need to calculate the impact of exceeding that maximum time—will you lose sales? Will you lose prospective customers? A good rule of thumb is to make certain that no website visitor waits longer than ten (10) seconds for a web page to load.

Once this threshold has been determined, you have to calculate the anticipated load and load pattern for your website, which you can then simulate through Webserver Stress Tool. See theCalculation of Load and Load Pattern section for details on load and load pattern calculation.

At the end of the load test you can compare the test results with the your maximum request time threshold When some page requests take longer than the target times or generate error messages, it is clear that there is work to be done to the application and webserver.