Chart Notes: The Key to Evaluating Web Speed Changes
Chart notes make it easier to evaluate the impact of changes made to your website.
Our PLUS speed monitoring even adds some notes automatically.
In this text, you will learn not only how to add and edit notes but also our recommendations on how to approach them.
Since version 4.10, notes are part of the unified Measurement History (Log) view: besides notes, you'll also see synthetic measurements, manual measurements (beta), and other novelties. An overview is offered on the Measurement History (Log) page; a summary of changes can be found in the release 4.10 changelog.
Why Keep a Web Change Log?
During web development, many changes occur that can affect speed.
Chart notes in our speed monitoring allow you to record these crucial moments, making it easier to trace the causes of any improvements or deteriorations in metrics.
These events might include:
- Deploying a redesigned version of the website or a regular release.
- Making significant changes to the backend.
- Implementing specific speed optimizations.
- Adding a third-party component to the website (analytics, A/B testing, chat).
Other important events include changes in measurement itself, such as changes in measured URLs. However, monitoring PLUS handles this automatically, as you will learn below.
Adding Notes to Charts
You can add a note to any day in any chart in monitoring PLUS:
Notes can be added by hovering over dates in the timeline of all charts.
Clicking below the actual chart opens a modal window where you can add (or edit an existing) note for that day.
Deployed a new version of the website? Add a note to the chart.
These important changes will then be visible in the charts, providing context for further work and evaluation of adjustments.
Notes will then appear in all charts, ensuring you don't miss any potential impact on any of the speed metrics.
Automatically Added Notes
The goal of PageSpeed.ONE PLUS monitoring is to handle as much as possible for you. In some cases, we add notes automatically:
- Change in synthetic measurement settings When you change the URL in Settings, we add a note to the charts stating “Change in measured URLs”.
- Change in testing technology For instance, when we upgrade to a new version of the Lighthouse tool, we add a note to this effect, such as “Lighthouse 12.1”. We also inform about this in our changelog.
These notes are global for all PLUS monitoring clients.
You can recognize them by the label [Auto] in the title or by the Automat flag in the list of notes.
The "Notes" Page
You can view all notes on the Notes page, accessible from the main navigation of each test:
The "Notes" page is the home of all changes on the website or in measurements.
What can you see in the image?
- The "Notes" page in test navigation.
- Option to add a note.
- User notes with the author of the last change.
- Automatic notes added by monitoring PLUS.
Here again, you can add, remove, or edit existing notes, except for those added automatically. All notes and measurements are also neatly presented in the Measurement History.
A Few Tips on Notes
Finally, here are some recommendations on how to work with notes:
- Only record important changes affecting speed If you publish a new version of the website several times a week, it's not necessary to add a note each time. Soon, you would lose track of the data in the charts. Only add notes for changes that might impact speed.
- Don't forget changes outside of technical web development Design changes often affect the CLS metric, while deploying third-party components or conducting A/B testing might impact the INP metric. More such cases can occur. Simply record important changes in Notes.
- Don't hesitate to add notes retrospectively Notes best explain the impact of each change and teach you to evaluate the impact of future adjustments. Therefore, don't hesitate to add notes retrospectively if you discover a change only after some time.
In the future, we are considering the possibility of automatically adding notes via a planned API.
Notes, along with the charts themselves, are a rather understated yet highly useful tool for anyone who cares about the speed development of their own websites.
