How fast a website loads is a key factor to increase website traffic. Therefore, you must check website speed on a regular basis. Anyone can make a website but improving performance takes time and effort. A Website Speed Test gives you information about how much time it takes to open. This is also among important Google ranking factors. You can do this using many online tools to check website speed. These website speed testing tools not only give you performance scores but also make suggestions about increasing website speed. We have searched some of the top website speed testing techniques for you in the coming text.
What is a website speed test and why is it important?
A website speed test is a process of finding out how fast a web page loads. Many people often confuse it with the web page speed test. However both are similar because a web page is also part of a website. Therefore, if you increase web page speed, overall website performance will also impact. Due to this you can expect good customer experience which is a key thing in making profit in business. How fast a website opens (website loading speed) also depends on your internet connection speed. Therefore do not forget to check internet speed also. But this is limited to your physical location only.
How to do a Website Speed Test?
First of all make sure your website is live. This means that at least the home page should open when you enter a domain name. After this you have to open some website speed testing tool online and enter your domain name. You can use any of the trusted websites for speed testing. Then the next step is to analyze results and improve performance if needed.
Website Speed Testing Tools
There are many free tools for checking website speed online. Here we list some of the most famous options you can go with.
tools.pingdom.com
The process is very simple. Copy and paste the website URL in the URL field and Select a location. This location is the place from where you want to test the speed. Now click on the start test button.
This website gives you information about how much time the site took in loading when tried to open from a selected location. This website also gives you a performance grade based on pre-selected parameters.
At the end there is information about places where the website scored low.
Using the same tool you can do website speed test from India, website speed test from Europe, website speed test from USA and website speed test from Japan.
Additionally, tools.pingdom.com also provides other important information. This includes website page size in MB, website load time, and requests.
When you scroll down, you get to see information about content, images etc.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix speed test gives you tons of information about the site. All you have to do is enter the website URL in the textbox and click on the “Test your Site” button.
The process may take some time but the information you get is very meaningful. You get a lot of page insights for SEO score improvement. From performance score to recommendation everything comes with just one test.
Additionally, you get to see Total loading time, and number of requests triggered from the page to complete the process.
Google Developers Tools
If you search how many customers use Google chrome then you will find that the maximum share of internet browsers belongs to Google Chrome. Therefore, if your primary customers use Google (which is an obvious case considering internet browser user percentages) then you must test your website using this tool. Google page insights of Google speed test gives you a lot of meaningful information.
The process here also is very simple. Enter the website URL and click on Analyze button. As a result you will get an overall score about website speed.
Below this score you have suggestions about what all you need to improve in order to make the website faster.
Why Website Speed Test
First of all Website Speed Test is important to ensure it loads fast. Then there are other linked reasons. One of the top reasons for doing website speed tests is customer experience. If the website loads slowly the experience will be poor. Therefore, you must increase website speed to improvise performance and experience. You can do it with the help of a developer or via self learning.
You can use these suggestions to make the website load faster. Or you can also watch this on YouTube to see the live performance of these tools.