Performance Module — User Guide

Table of Contents

The Performance module is a comprehensive performance analysis dashboard inside Advanced Analytics. It combines automated site health checking, URL tracking, and Google PageSpeed Insights integration to give WordPress administrators a complete view of their site’s performance, security, and SEO posture.

Who is this for?
You need the Administrator role (the manage_options capability) to access the Performance module. Other user roles will not see the menu item or be able to perform any operations.

Key Features

Site Health — 32 automated checks across Security, Speed, and Resources
URLs — Track and analyse individual page URLs
Page Speed — Google PageSpeed Insights integration for mobile and desktop
Core Web Vitals metrics (FCP, LCP, TBT, CLS, SI)
Category scores for Accessibility, Best Practices, and SEO
Expandable audit details with opportunities and diagnostics
Screenshot and filmstrip of page load
Visual gauge charts for score visualization
Dark mode support
Cached results for instant page loads

Enable / Disable the Module

The Performance module can be enabled or disabled independently of other Advanced Analytics features.

Navigate to Error Logs → Settings in the WordPress admin sidebar.
Click the “Performance” tab (or scroll to the section headed Performance options).
Toggle the “Enable performance module” checkbox.
Click Save Changes.

wp-admin/admin.php?page=advan_logs_settings#aadvana-options-tab-performance

Important: Disabling the module removes the Performance sub-menu item from the admin navigation. No data is lost — the module simply becomes hidden. Re-enabling it restores full access.

Accessing the Performance Page

Once the module is enabled, find it in the WordPress admin sidebar:

In the WordPress admin menu, look for the Error Logs main menu.
Click the “Performance” sub-menu item.
The Performance page loads showing the Site Health tab by default.

wp-admin/admin.php?page=advan_performance

Tab Navigation

The Performance page is organized into three tabs. Click any tab to switch views:

Tab	Description	URL Parameter
Site Health	32 automated checks with scored dashboard	`?tab=checks` (default)
URLs	URL tracking list with per-URL analysis	`?tab=urls`
Page Speed	Google PageSpeed Insights analysis	`?tab=pagespeed`

Site Health Tab

The Site Health tab runs 32 automated checks across your WordPress installation and presents the results in a scored dashboard. Checks are organized into three categories: Security, Speed, and Resources.

What You’ll See

Overall score — A large score circle (0–100) showing your site’s overall health
Summary line — Quick count: “28 passed • 3 warnings • 1 failed”
Performance gauge — A doughnut chart showing the proportion of passed, warning, info, and failed checks
Category score badges — Individual scores for Security, Speed, and Resources
Check results tables — Detailed results grouped by category, each showing status icon, check name, result, and recommendation

Understanding Health Scores

Each check produces a status, and the scores are calculated from the weighted results:

Status Icons

Icon	Status	Meaning
✓	Pass	The check passed — no action needed
ℹ	Info	Informational — worth noting but not a problem
⚠	Warning	Potential issue — consider addressing
✗	Fail	Issue detected — action recommended

Score Color Grades

Score Range	Grade	Color
80–100	Good	Green
50–79	OK	Orange/Yellow
0–49	Bad	Red

Check Categories

The 32 Site Health checks are divided into three categories:

Security

Checks related to the security posture of your WordPress installation, such as:

HTTPS enforcement
Debug mode status
File editor accessibility
Security headers
WordPress version currency

Speed

Checks related to site performance and loading speed, such as:

PHP version
Object cache availability
Database optimization
Page caching
Asset minification

Resources

Checks related to server resources and configuration, such as:

PHP memory limit
Upload size limits
Cron job status
Database size
Plugin and theme counts

Refreshing Health Checks

Site Health check results are cached for 24 hours to avoid running the scanner on every page load.

On the Site Health tab, look for the “Re-run Site Health Checks” button at the top of the page.
Click the button to refresh all 32 checks.
The page reloads with updated results and a fresh “Last analysed” timestamp.

Note: The “Last analysed” timestamp shows when checks were last run (e.g., “just now”, “5 minutes ago”, or a specific date/time).

URLs Tab

The URLs tab provides a list of tracked URLs from your WordPress site. You can browse, search, and analyse individual pages.

Click the “URLs” tab at the top of the Performance page.
The URL list table loads, showing tracked pages with search and pagination.

Prerequisite: URL tracking must be enabled in the plugin settings. If the “Enable URL data collection” option is turned off, you’ll see a warning banner and no new URLs will be collected (existing data remains viewable).

Viewing URL Details

To view detailed information about a specific URL:

Find the URL in the list table.
Click the “View” action link.
A modal overlay opens showing all recorded data for that URL.
Click the × button or click outside the modal to close it.

Per-URL PageSpeed Analysis

You can run a Google PageSpeed analysis for any tracked URL directly from the URL list:

Find the URL you want to analyse in the URLs tab.
Click the “Run PageSpeed” button for that URL.
Wait for the analysis to complete (this can take up to a minute).
The PageSpeed scores are stored alongside the URL record and displayed as color-coded badges in the list.

Score Badges in the URL List

After PageSpeed data is collected, score badges appear in the URL list columns:

Color	Score Range	Meaning
Green	90–100	Good
Orange	50–89	Needs Improvement
Red	0–49	Poor

Page Speed Tab

The Page Speed tab provides a full Google PageSpeed Insights analysis for any publicly accessible URL. It shows detailed Core Web Vitals metrics, category scores, audit opportunities, diagnostics, and page load screenshots for both mobile and desktop.

Click the “Page Speed” tab at the top of the Performance page.
If configured, you’ll see a URL input field and an analysis button.

Requirement: A Google PageSpeed API key must be configured before using this tab. See Configuring the API Key.

Configuring the API Key

The Page Speed tab requires a Google PageSpeed Insights API key to function. Without it, a warning notice is displayed with a link to the settings page.

Visit the Google PageSpeed Insights API documentation to obtain an API key.
In the WordPress admin, navigate to Error Logs → Settings.
Click the “Performance” tab.
Enter your API key in the “Google PageSpeed API Key” field.
Click Save Changes.

wp-admin/admin.php?page=advan_logs_settings#aadvana-options-tab-performance

Security: Your API key is encrypted at rest using the plugin’s secure storage system. It is never exposed in plain text in the database.

Running an Analysis

To analyse a page’s performance:

On the Page Speed tab, enter the URL you want to analyse in the input field. It is pre-filled with your site’s home URL by default.
Click “Run PageSpeed Analysis”.
A blue info notice appears: “Analysis started – collecting data from Google PageSpeed can take up to a minute.”
Wait for the results to load. The analysis fetches data for both mobile and desktop devices.
Once complete, the Mobile/Desktop tab switcher appears and results are displayed.

Tip: You can navigate away from the page during analysis and return later. Cached results are shown automatically if available.

Important: The URL must be publicly accessible for Google to analyse it. Internal URLs, localhost addresses, or pages behind authentication will not work.

Mobile vs Desktop Results

Google PageSpeed analyses your page for both mobile and desktop devices separately. The results are shown in a tab switcher:

After the analysis completes, the Mobile / Desktop toggle appears above the results.
Click “Mobile” to see the mobile device analysis.
Click “Desktop” to see the desktop device analysis.

Each device view contains its own set of metrics, scores, audits, and screenshots. Mobile and desktop scores often differ significantly because mobile emulation uses throttled CPU and network conditions.

Performance Score & Gauge

The performance score is displayed as a large number inside a doughnut gauge chart.

Score Interpretation

Score Range	Color	Meaning
90–100	Green	Good — page performs well
50–89	Orange	Needs improvement — optimize the flagged areas
0–49	Red	Poor — significant performance issues

The gauge chart uses a weighted scoring model based on the Lighthouse performance scoring methodology. The score is derived from the Core Web Vitals metrics (FCP, LCP, TBT, CLS, SI).

Core Web Vitals Metrics

The Metrics section displays five Core Web Vitals indicators, each shown as a color-coded tile:

Metric	Full Name	What It Measures	Good Threshold
FCP	First Contentful Paint	Time until the first text or image is rendered	< 1.8s
LCP	Largest Contentful Paint	Time until the largest content element is visible	< 2.5s
TBT	Total Blocking Time	Total time the main thread was blocked (long tasks)	< 200ms
CLS	Cumulative Layout Shift	Visual stability — how much the layout shifts during load	< 0.1
SI	Speed Index	How quickly content is visually displayed during load	< 3.4s

Metric Color Coding

Green (Pass) — The metric meets the recommended threshold
Orange (Average) — The metric is within acceptable range but could be improved
Red (Fail) — The metric exceeds the recommended threshold and needs attention

Category Scores

In addition to the main Performance score, the Page Speed tab shows scores for three additional categories:

Category	Description
Accessibility	How accessible the page is to users with disabilities (ARIA, color contrast, alt text, etc.)
Best Practices	Whether the page follows modern web development best practices (HTTPS, console errors, image aspect ratios, etc.)
SEO	Search engine optimization basics (meta tags, crawlability, structured data, etc.)

Each category is shown as a circular badge with the same green/orange/red color coding as the performance score.

Opportunities & Diagnostics

Below the metrics, the results are organized into expandable accordion sections:

Opportunities

Suggestions that could help your page load faster. Each opportunity shows a potential time saving and includes expandable details with specific resources to optimize (e.g., images to compress, scripts to defer).

Diagnostics

Additional information about how your page adheres to performance best practices. These don’t directly affect the performance score but provide useful insights (e.g., DOM size, main-thread work breakdown, third-party code impact).

Passed Audits

Audits that your page has passed successfully. Expand this section to see what’s working well.

Click any audit row to expand it and see detailed information. Audits with table-style details show columns like URL, size, and time savings. Up to 20 items are shown per audit.

Additional Category Audits

Below the performance audits, you’ll find expandable sections for:

Accessibility — individual accessibility audit results
Best Practices — individual best practices audit results
SEO — individual SEO audit results

Each section contains accordion items with the same expand/collapse interface as the performance audits.

Filtering Audits by Metric

You can filter the displayed audits to show only those relevant to a specific Core Web Vital metric:

Locate the “Show audits relevant to:” filter row below the metrics.
Click one of the radio buttons: All, FCP, LCP, TBT, or CLS.
The audit lists update to show only audits that affect the selected metric.

Example: Selecting “LCP” will show only audits that impact your Largest Contentful Paint score, such as render-blocking resources, unused JavaScript, image optimization, and server response time.

Screenshots & Filmstrip

The PageSpeed results include visual representations of your page load:

Final Screenshot

A screenshot of the fully loaded page as seen by the Lighthouse crawler. This helps you verify that the correct page was analysed.

Filmstrip

A series of thumbnail screenshots taken at regular intervals during the page load. Each thumbnail shows a timing label indicating when that frame was captured. This filmstrip provides a visual timeline of how the page renders from start to finish.

Cached Results

The Performance module uses caching to provide a faster experience:

PageSpeed Cache

PageSpeed analysis results are cached for 1 hour.
When you return to the Page Speed tab, cached results load automatically.
To get fresh data, click “Run PageSpeed Analysis” again — the cache is overwritten with new results.
The analysed URL is stored with the cached data so the input field is pre-populated.

Site Health Cache

Site Health check results are cached for 24 hours.
Click “Re-run Site Health Checks” to refresh before the cache expires.
The cache timestamp is visible in the “Last analysed” label.

Dark Mode

The Performance module supports dark mode. If you have enabled the dark skin via the plugin’s backend skin switcher (stored in localStorage as aadvana-backend-skin), all Performance page elements — including gauges, score badges, check tables, and PageSpeed results — automatically adjust their colors for comfortable reading in a dark environment.

Help Tabs

The Performance page provides contextual help via the WordPress Screen Options → Help tab at the top of the page.

Help Panel

Overview of how to use the Performance module.
Description of Site Health checks and scoring.
Notes on the PageSpeed analysis and Core Web Vitals.

Troubleshooting

Ensure the Performance module is enabled in Settings → Performance tab.
Verify you are logged in with the Administrator role (or have the manage_options capability).
Check if the menu_admins_only setting is enabled.

Page Speed tab shows “API key required” warning

Navigate to Error Logs → Settings → Performance tab.
Enter a valid Google PageSpeed Insights API key.
You can obtain a free API key from the Google PageSpeed API documentation.

PageSpeed analysis fails or returns an error

Ensure the URL you entered is publicly accessible. Internal, localhost, or password-protected URLs cannot be analysed by Google.
Check that your API key is valid and has not exceeded its quota.
The analysis can take up to 60 seconds. Wait for the loading indicator to complete before assuming a failure.
If the API returns an error message, it is displayed in a red error banner below the URL input. Read the message for specific guidance.

Site Health checks show “data could not be loaded”

Reload the page to trigger a fresh scan.
If the issue persists, check that WordPress loopback requests are working (some hosting environments block them).
The scanner makes HTTP requests to your site — ensure your server is not blocking these requests via firewall or security plugin rules.

REST API calls return 403 errors

This can occur if the session token was rotated during the page load. Reload the page to get a fresh nonce.
Verify you are still logged in — admin sessions can expire.
Check if a security plugin is blocking REST API requests.

If URL data collection is disabled, navigate to Settings → Performance and enable the “Enable URL data collection” option.
Existing URL data remains viewable even when collection is disabled.

Scores differ between the plugin and Google’s PageSpeed website

PageSpeed scores can vary between runs due to network conditions, server load, and other factors.
The plugin uses the same API as the PageSpeed website, but results are cached locally for 1 hour. Run a fresh analysis for the most current results.
Mobile scores are typically lower than desktop due to throttled CPU and network conditions in mobile emulation.

Need developer documentation?
See Performance Module Developer Documentation for architectural details, class references, REST API endpoints, and code examples for extending the Performance module programmatically.