Speed Testing
Run real speed tests from mainland China and understand the detailed breakdown of your site's performance.
Running a Speed Test#
Navigate to Speed in China → Speed Test in your WordPress admin.
The URL to Test field auto-fills with your site's URL. You can edit this if needed.
Click Test Now to start the speed test.
Wait for results — the test runs from 4 different locations in mainland China and typically completes within 15–30 seconds.
Cooldown period. To prevent API abuse, there is a 60-second cooldown between
manual speed tests. This cooldown is disabled when WP_DEBUG is set to
true.
How It Works#
When you run a speed test, the plugin sends a request to the Speed in China API, which creates a measurement on the Globalping network. Globalping dispatches probes located within mainland China to perform an HTTP GET request to your site's URL.
The API requests 4 probes from across China. The specific cities are dynamically assigned based on probe availability, but commonly include Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
Understanding Results#
Each probe returns a detailed timing breakdown. Results are displayed in a table with these columns:
| Metric | What It Measures | Good | Slow |
|---|---|---|---|
| DNS | Domain name resolution time | < 100 ms | > 500 ms |
| TCP | TCP connection establishment | < 200 ms | > 800 ms |
| TLS | SSL/TLS handshake time | < 300 ms | > 1000 ms |
| TTFB | Time to first byte from the server | < 500 ms | > 2000 ms |
| Download | Response body download time | < 200 ms | > 1000 ms |
| Total | End-to-end total load time | < 2000 ms | > 5000 ms |
| Status | HTTP response status code | 200 | 4xx/5xx |
Performance Grades#
Results are color-coded to help you identify issues at a glance:
- Green — Good performance. No action needed.
- Yellow/Orange — Warning. Performance is acceptable but could be improved.
- Red — Slow or failing. Investigate and optimize.
Summary Statistics#
Above the detailed results table, a summary bar shows key aggregate statistics:
- Average Load Time — Mean total time across all probes
- Fastest / Slowest — Best and worst performing locations
- Status — Whether all probes received successful responses
Testing Different URLs#
The URL field supports any publicly accessible URL — not just your homepage. You can test:
- Specific pages:
https://example.com/products/ - Subdomains:
https://shop.example.com/ - Other domains:
https://anotherdomain.com/
The test URL must be publicly accessible from the internet. Private, local, or password-protected URLs cannot be tested because the test originates from remote probes in China, not from your server.
Admin Bar Integration#
After your first speed test, a status indicator appears in the WordPress admin bar showing your most recent average load time and performance grade. This provides at-a-glance awareness without needing to visit the plugin page.
The admin bar shows an emoji-coded grade:
- 🟢 Fast — Under 2 seconds average
- 🟡 Moderate — 2–5 seconds average
- 🔴 Slow — Over 5 seconds average