Notifications (Needs attention)

Needs attention on the Dashboard lists what has lasted over several checks or needs a decision: a page that keeps scoring Poor, a server that’s often overloaded, a PHP version without security fixes. A single poor value only changes its color on the page where it appears. A notification closes by itself once the value is fine again.

What you see

Each notification has a title that says what’s going on, such as “Largest Contentful Paint is often Poor”, and the name of its layer. Below it, a short text explains the value and a sentence states the evidence, for example “Google rated these pages Poor for Largest Contentful Paint in at least 5 of their last 10 tests on mobile.” Where several pages are affected, a table lists them with their last 10 tests and the latest value.

Links lead to the details: Full report to the PageSpeed page, View by layer to the History, View server load, View in System info, and a link to the matching page in this guide.

Speed problems are red. Upkeep is orange and says so: “This is upkeep, not a speed problem.” When the latest tests of an open notification are better, it says so too, for example “Better in the last 2 tests · closes after 3”.

What Permo reports

Speed, per page and device:

Performance score is often Poor: the score was below 50.
Largest Contentful Paint, Cumulative Layout Shift or Total Blocking Time is often Poor: Google rated the metric Poor, that is, gave it a score below 50.
Visitors often wait for the server: in Google’s test, the server took over 600 ms for the first byte; see server response time.
WordPress often builds pages slowly: Permo’s own check, past the page cache, waited over 1.8 s for the first byte; see uncached server response time.

The server:

The server is often overloaded: the load per CPU core was above 1, or PHP used more than 90% of its memory limit; see load per CPU core.

Upkeep and settings, as soon as System info shows them in red:

PHP no longer gets security updates; see PHP version.
The database server is past its end of support; see database server.
Plugins are no longer maintained: at least one active plugin was closed on WordPress.org; see unmaintained plugins.
Debug mode is slowing down every page: SAVEQUERIES is on in a live or staging site; see debug mode.

Permo itself: The last PageSpeed checks failed: at least 3 in a row; the title says how many. A link leads to the key or the errors in the settings.

How it works

A speed notification opens when a value was over its limit in at least 5 of the last 10 tests of a page. Every test counts, including the ones you started yourself. It closes quietly once the 3 latest tests are fine. For the server, the same rule applies to the server values Permo records with its checks. Upkeep and settings follow System info: the notification is open while the card there is red.

There’s one notification per value and device. Each new page with the same problem joins it, instead of opening a new one.

Dismiss hides a notification. It comes back when another page is affected, or when the problem was gone once and returns. Show dismissed lists the hidden ones, with Restore.

Mute hides that kind of notification for good, also in the monthly report. Permo keeps checking in the background and deletes nothing, so after Unmute in Settings › General, under Muted notifications, you see right away whether the problem is still there. A failed check can’t be muted.

The layers under Where to start on the Dashboard use the same notifications: a layer turns red only while one of its speed notifications is open, even a dismissed or muted one.

Limits

Notifications appear only on Permo’s Dashboard. There’s no counter in the WordPress menu and no email when a notification opens. The monthly report lists the notifications of the past month.
The speed notifications for scores, metrics and the server response come from Google’s test and need an API key. WordPress, the server and upkeep work without one.

When something is missing

Nothing measured yet: Permo hasn’t checked a page yet. Speed notifications need 5 checks of a page; with daily checks, that takes about a week. Problems with PHP, the database or plugins show up after the first check.
No lasting problems so far: Permo is still collecting. The note says how many of the 5 checks are done.
No lasting problems right now: nothing has lasted. Single values can still be yellow or red on the other screens; they only become a notification when they stay that way.
A notification you expected is missing: it may be muted. A note below the list says how many muted notifications aren’t shown.