Most of Part I was concerned with understanding how to analyze WebPageTest results. Having completed Part I, you should now be comfortable reading waterfall diagrams, comparing tests, and getting down to business determining what is slowing down your page. These skills are extremely valuable and will only get sharper as we continue looking at the next level of use cases.

Up until now, however, our test configurations have been overly simplified. As you’ve seen, WebPageTest makes it very easy to get results for a particular URL. With few exceptions, the test settings we’ve looked at so far have been left at their default values. As easy as it is to leave these settings untouched, the test results can lose relevance and usefulness if the test is misconfigured.

In Part II, we will build on the foundation of test analysis by discussing the use cases of test configuration. For each of the following chapters, a unique use case will be examined. We’ll discuss ways to use WebPageTest’s flexible configuration options to address each scenario, providing you with the skills you need to adequately test your website.