WordPress Speed Test Checklist

Running a one-off speed test on your WordPress site is easy. Turning that into a repeatable WordPress speed test checklist you can trust is where most site owners struggle. Scores jump around, different tools disagree, and it can be hard to know what to actually write down and track.

In this guide, you will build a clear, step-by-step WordPress speed test checklist to benchmark your most important pages, record Core Web Vitals, and compare changes over time. You will know exactly which tools to use, what to click, what numbers to save, and how to interpret them.

If you want to go beyond testing and start fixing issues once you have your results, pair this speed test checklist with our detailed guide on how to speed up a WordPress site.

Prerequisites

Before you start your WordPress speed test checklist, make sure you have a few essentials ready. This will keep your results consistent and prevent you from testing a site that is in the middle of major changes.

• Access to your WordPress admin dashboard (Administrator role).
• Access to your hosting control panel or server dashboard (optional but helpful).
• A modern desktop browser (Chrome, Edge, or Firefox) for running tests.
• A stable wired or fast Wi-Fi internet connection.
• Admin access to analytics tools (Google Analytics, Search Console, or similar) for context.

Step 1: Define your WordPress speed test goals

To build a useful WordPress speed test checklist, you need clear goals. Decide what “fast enough” means for your site and which audiences matter most (mobile users, logged-in members, shoppers, etc.).

Use this step to answer these questions:

• Which devices matter most? Mobile, desktop, or both? (Usually mobile first.)
• Which metrics will you track? For example, LCP, CLS, TTFB, and overall performance score.
• How often will you run tests? After big changes only, monthly, or before/after campaigns.
• Who is responsible? Assign a person or role for running and logging tests.

Step 2: Build your test page checklist

A WordPress speed test checklist is useless if you only test your homepage. Different templates, plugins, and page builders can behave very differently, so you need a representative set of URLs.

Create a small but meaningful list of pages to test:

1. Homepage: Often your busiest page and a major brand touchpoint.
2. Key content template: A typical blog post or article (same layout you use most often).
3. High-traffic landing page: For example, a lead magnet, services page, or campaign landing page.
4. Shop pages (if applicable): WooCommerce shop archive, single product page, cart, and checkout.
5. Account or dashboard pages: Member areas, course dashboards, or custom app-like pages.

Put these URLs into a spreadsheet or document that will become your master speed test checklist. Group them by type (home, blog, shop, checkout, etc.) so you can see patterns.

Step 3: Choose and configure your testing tools

Next, choose the tools that will power your WordPress speed test checklist. You do not need every tool on the market; you need a small, consistent set you can use the same way every time.

Commonly used tools include:

• Google PageSpeed Insights: Great for Core Web Vitals and mobile vs desktop scores.
• GTmetrix: Helpful for waterfall charts, requests, and detailed timings.
• WebPageTest: Excellent for advanced testing (first vs repeat view, different locations).
• Browser DevTools (Lighthouse): For ad-hoc audits and debugging in Chrome or Edge.

Configure each tool as consistently as possible:

1. Pick a primary test location close to your main audience (for example, US-East or EU-West).
2. Use mobile testing as your default unless desktop is clearly more important.
3. Note down any tool-specific settings (connection speed, device profile, number of test runs).
4. Decide which tool will be your primary source of truth for metrics like LCP and CLS.

Step 4: Run your WordPress speed tests consistently

Now you are ready to actually run your WordPress speed tests. This is where your checklist becomes very practical: you will follow the same steps for every URL and every test session.

1. Put your site into a stable state: no plugin updates, imports, or large backups running in the background.
2. Clear your WordPress cache (plugin cache and any server or CDN cache) to simulate a first-time visitor.
3. Open your primary testing tool (for example, PageSpeed Insights) and paste the first URL from your checklist.
4. Run the test at least 2–3 times and note the average of the key metrics instead of a single outlier score.
5. Repeat for each URL on your list, always using the same test configuration (location, device, connection speed).
6. Optionally, run the same URLs through a secondary tool (such as GTmetrix) for deeper waterfall and DNS/TTFB insights.

Step 5: Capture metrics and diagnose recurring issues

Once you have your test results, write them into your speed test checklist immediately. You want a clear record of what you tested, when, with which tool, and what the key numbers were.

At minimum, record for each URL and tool:

• Date and time of the test.
• Device type (mobile or desktop) and test location.
• Overall performance score (if provided by the tool).
• LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) time in seconds.
• CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) value.
• TTFB (Time to First Byte) or server response metric.
• Any critical warnings (render-blocking scripts, unoptimized images, long main thread tasks, etc.).

Use your checklist to spot patterns. Are all checkout-related pages slow? Is CLS only high on blog posts with certain ad placements? Do only mobile scores suffer? When patterns appear, you can plan focused fixes instead of random tweaks.

At this point, you may want to switch to our WordPress speed optimization checklist to translate your findings into specific actions to improve load times and Core Web Vitals.

Step 6: Turn your speed test checklist into a recurring process

A one-time WordPress speed test is useful, but performance can drift over time as you add plugins, content, and tracking scripts. The final step is to turn your checklist into a recurring process.

1. Decide how often to run full tests on all key URLs (for example, monthly or quarterly).
2. Schedule tests after major changes: theme switch, new page builder, large plugin installs, or hosting migrations.
3. Save each test run as a new row in your spreadsheet rather than overwriting past results.
4. Review trends: if metrics gradually worsen, plan a maintenance sprint to fix performance debt.
5. Document what changed between “good” and “bad” periods (new plugins, larger images, marketing scripts).

You can structure this process around a formal monthly WordPress speed audit so your team always knows when to run tests, what to log, and how to respond when performance dips.

Lock in a repeatable WordPress speed testing workflow

By now, you have more than just a random set of scores from a single test run. You have a clear WordPress speed test checklist, a list of priority URLs, a small set of reliable tools, and a repeatable process for recording and analyzing results.

Use this workflow whenever you change themes, add major plugins, or kick off new campaigns. Over time, you will build a performance history that makes it easy to see which changes helped or hurt speed, so you can make smarter optimization decisions and keep your WordPress site consistently fast.

Further Reading

• Beginner Guide to WordPress Speed and Core Web Vitals
• WordPress Performance Tuning Beginner Guide
• WordPress Performance Checklist for Bloggers
• Caching Plugin Comparisons for WordPress Performance

Frequently Asked Questions