Server-Side A/B Testing
This is a performance-friendly method for running A/B tests. Unlike Client-Side A/B Testing, the decision of which variation to show a user is made on the Origin Server. The server sends the final, correct version of the HTML directly to the browser. This completely avoids the Flicker Effect and the performance penalties associated with client-side DOM manipulation.
Related web performance terms
- Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the process of improving a website's visibility in search engine results pages (like Google). The goal is to rank higher than competitors for relevant search queries to attract more organic (free) traffic.
- Server Response Time
Server Response Time is a component of Time to First Byte that measures how long the server takes to process a request and start sending back a response, excluding network latency.
- Server Timing
Server Timing is a browser API that allows the backend to communicate performance metrics about its own internal processes (e.g., database query time, time to render a component) to the browser via HTTP headers.
- Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
Server-Side Rendering is an architectural approach where the server generates the full HTML for a page before sending it to the browser. The browser receives a complete document that it can start rendering immediately.