How to Determine DOM Sizes for Multiple Pages

2 responses to “DOM size for batch of pages?”

1. Yes, obtaining the DOM (Document Object Model) size for a large batch of pages can provide insights into the performance and complexity of your web pages. A large DOM size can often lead to performance issues, so it’s a useful metric to monitor.

   Tools to Get DOM Sizes for Multiple Pages

   Below are various tools and methods you can use to get DOM sizes for a batch of web pages:

   1. Screaming Frog SEO Spider

   Screaming Frog is a versatile tool that can help you crawl websites and extract various metrics, but it doesn’t natively provide a DOM size metric directly. However, you can leverage its custom extraction features to get an idea of DOM sizes indirectly:

   • Custom Extraction: Use Screaming Frog’s custom extraction feature to scrape the document.documentElement.innerHTML.length using a small JavaScript snippet inside an appropriate tag if you can inject JavaScript into the head or body of the pages. This requires some setup and isn’t straightforward.

   2. Chrome DevTools

   Chrome DevTools can measure the DOM size, but getting this data in bulk for multiple pages would require more effort:

   • Lighthouse Reports: Generate Lighthouse reports for individual pages via Chrome DevTools or a tool like PageSpeed Insights. While this won’t give you a direct DOM element count, it highlights potential issues if the DOM is too complex.

   • Automated Scripts: If you are comfortable with scripting, use a headless browser like Puppeteer to automate the process. Puppeteer allows you to script Chrome headlessly and can be used to find DOM sizes via scripts.

   “`javascript
   const puppeteer = require(‘puppeteer’);

   (async () => {
   const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
   const page = await browser.newPage();

   const urls = [‘https://www.example.com’, ‘https://www.example2.com’]; // List your URLs here
   for (const url of urls) {
   await page.goto(url);
   const domSize = await page.evaluate(() => document.getElementsByTagName(‘*’).length);
   console.log(URL: ${url} - DOM Size: ${domSize});
   }

   await browser.close();
   })();
   “`

   3. External Services and Tools

   Some third-party tools and services might offer APIs or capabilities to measure DOM size:

   • Sitespeed.io: This tool is designed for performance testing,

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2. This is a great topic! Understanding DOM size is crucial for optimizing page load times and overall performance. In addition to Screaming Frog, I’d recommend considering Google’s Chrome DevTools, which allows you to analyze not only the DOM size of individual pages but also monitor performance metrics in real-time. You can use the Performance tab to capture profiling data while navigating through your site.

   Furthermore, for a batch of pages, automated solutions like web scraping with tools such as Puppeteer or Playwright can offer a flexible approach to programmatically fetch and analyze DOM sizes. Just make sure you comply with the site’s terms of service while scraping!

   Also, keep in mind that while a large DOM might not always lead to slower performance, it can become unwieldy and lead to greater memory consumption, especially on mobile devices. Regular audits can help maintain an optimal balance. Interested to hear if others have used alternative methods or tools!

   Reply