Market Index Methodology

AlertSite's indexing methodology simulates typical customer interactions on a company's home page, producing a real-world view of how long it takes to access the page, as well as the type and frequency of errors that occur within the page. The Market Index is determined by monitoring numerous companies' sites from multiple locations.

Performance Metrics

Performance differences between the selected sites are illustrated in both chart and tabular formats. The metrics underlying these reports include:

  • DNS time
  • Connect time
  • Redirect time
  • Content length
  • Total response time

Monitoring scripts are created using DéjàClick and then uploaded to monitoring sites around the globe. Recorded transactions mimic an actual end-user's clicks, hovers and other navigational interactions. DéjàClick's standardized user profile behaves like a first-time user, so cookies, client side caching, logins, etc. are always cleared prior to monitoring.

Calculations

Market Index calculations are based on aggregated HTML load times for home pages, including:

  • Images
  • Objects
  • Redirects
  • Third-party elements

The companies that comprise each industry are monitored from AlertSite's global monitoring network, and the averaged results are presented as benchmarks. Global monitoring enables AlertSite to report both uptime and availability.