Nobody likes waiting.
Talking about me, I really hate it and if I feel like the website is taking too much of my time then I immediately close it.
Most people do that. Why wouldn’t they? And on top of it, it is a ranking signal. We can help you improve your page speed scores and your overall Google rankings. Contact our SEO consultants in Brisbane today.
In this fast-paced digital world, everything is moving quickly. People do not have time and do not even bother to wait for a thing that is taking too much of their time. So, if you want your users to stay on your website then, first of all, you need to make your website faster and easily loadable in a few seconds.
Google has already indicated that website page speed is one of the signals used by its algorithm to rank pages. It can be a critical factor in its success. So, if you want to make both your user and Google happy, then you need to quickly work on it.
Table of Contents
- Google PageSpeed Insights
- Pingdom Website Speed Test
- GTMetrix
- KeyCDN Website Speed Test
- Web Page Test
- Which Loads Faster?
- OctaGate Site Timer
- Site Speed Checker – SEO Mastering
- Uptrends
- Page Scoring Speed Test
- Very PageSpeed Optimisation
- Show Slow
- Velocity
- Dareboost
- Site24*7
- Yellow Labs Tools
- Sucuri Website Speed Tests
- Uptime
- SpeedCurve
- Google Chrome Dev Tools
- Summary
Website speed is something that can be taken care of right from the development process but this might increase your WordPress website design costs. Even if your website was not built with best practices in mind, there are tonnes of free website speed test tools available online which you should take advantage of. These tools not only pinpoint your website’s bottlenecks but, also provide you with necessary recommendations which help improve your site’s overall performance.
Here’s a collection of the top free tools for testing your website’s speed with their own unique features and reporting results.
Facing slow site performance?
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights is the best website speed check and performance test tool by Google. This tool fetches your website URL twice; once with a mobile user agent and once, with a desktop-user agent. So, you can view the page speed of your website on both mobile and desktop. It scores websites from 0 to 100 based on their performance of the websites. The higher the score, the better the performance of the website.
A great thing about Page Speed Insights is that it not only provides the score of your website performance optimisation test but, it also provides you with the necessary suggestions to improve your website speed and performance summary. The suggestions usually include fixing the page elements like render-blocking JavaScript and CSS in above-the-fold content, optimisation of images, leveraging web browsers caching, minifying CSS and JavaScript, and so on. Implement the suggestions provided by Page Speed Insights to improve the website performance of your website.
Google’s pagespeed test has been very popular for mobile website speed test results. It gives a detailed report on Google’s core web vitals and what actions need to be taken to improve your website performance for your audiences. If you are looking to improve your SEO rankings on Google, then you can’t ignore the recommendations provided by Google pagespeed Insights. It’s your perfect guide.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Pingdom Website Speed Test tool analyses the load speed of your websites and lets you identify what page of your website is fast, slow, or too big and teaches you the tricks to make your website faster, and so on. The speed test report provided by Pingdom is mainly divided into four sections: waterfall charts breakdown, performance grade and tips, overall page performance examination and analysis and performance history tracing. You can select the test locations around the world for example Canada, North America or Melbourne, Australia.
The website speed test offers a detailed summary of performance grade, page size, performance insights, response codes, content size by content types, content size by domain, and the number of file requests. Hence, it is an awesome tool to get a detailed page analysis of your website.
GTMetrix
GTMetrix is one of my favourite website speed checks and analysing tools that work on both Google PageSpeed Insights and YSlow metrics. It gives you a detailed insight into how well your website is performing and provides actionable recommendations on how to optimise your website in order to improve your website’s overall speed and performance. Your website is assigned a grade from F to A depending on how well your site is performing.
Unlike other page speed testing tools, GTMetrix tells you a lot about your website’s performance. Its report provides the full picture of how your site loads and helps you to find where the bottlenecks are. The report provided by GTmetrix includes the following key features:
- PageSpeed and YSlow scores and Recommendations
- Page load details including the time, size, and number of requests
- Various analysis options
- Waterfall, video and report history
The additional features include monitor pages, setting up monitored alerts, and test from multiple regions (you can test from seven different locations), analyse with mobile and video capture. You can register to a GTMetrix account at a free cost.
KeyCDN Website Speed Test
It is a speed test tool built by KeyCDN. This tool can include a waterfall breakdown and the website preview, so it can be used to generate detailed insights on how your website is performing. Through this test, you can see the number of HTTP requests made, the full size of the page requested and the loading time of your website.
KeyCDN Website Speed test offers 14 locations in total to choose from around the globe and you have an option of making your tests private and public as per your wish. This tool is responsive in nature and works great on mobile devices. So, it is the best alternative to Google PageSpeed Insights.
Having Problems With Your Website?
Web Page Test
Like other website page speed and performance testing tools, the Web page Test tool analyses the overall performance of your website. It can run the test of the website from over 40 different locations and over 25 different browser versions including mobile. Web Page Test performs testing of your website on FTTB, caching, compression, effective use of CDN, etc and scores your website from grade F to A depending on the overall performance of your website.
The analysis report provided by Web Page Speed includes six different sections: summary details, performance review, content breakdown, domains, and screenshots. You can also go through the advanced features provided by Web Page Test, which includes features such as video capture, JavaScript disabling, ignoring SSL certificates and spoofing user agent strings.
Which Loads Faster?
Which Loads Faster is a great tool to compare the performance of two different websites in your browser. As its name, the site compares the site loading time of two websites side by side. You can find two different modes here: Parallel mode and Serial Mode. Serial mode is the default mode in which, sites are loaded one side at a time in order to eliminate the possibility that the two sides will interfere with each other.
You can get to see the additional features like repeat, setting and grabbing my data in Which Loads Faster. It is a great tool to perform a speed test of your website and your competitor’s website.
OctaGate Site Timer
OctaGate Site Timer allows you to monitor how long it really takes for your user to download one or more pages of your website. It visits your requested pages and downloads all content types such as images, frames, script files, iframes, etc. that are directly linked from that page. Site Timer stores statistics on how long it takes to download each item on your site and the quantity of data they contain, once the pages are downloaded.
OctatGate Site Timer not only shows how objects on the web page you’re testing are being downloaded through a waterfall timeline but, it also gives you insight into how long it takes for your website to load completely.
Site Speed Checker – SEO Mastering
This is yet another great tool to take your comparison further. You can enter 10 URLs and compare the site performance of each one simultaneously. Site Speed Checker displays details that include the total time taken by it to get a control packet from the host. The higher the value of packet loss and reaction time, the lower the connection performances of the site and the lower the response time, the faster the connection and more reliable.
You can view the duration of the given site through the Site Speed Checker. And you too can use this value to view how long a site takes to load.
Uptrends
Uptrends is another great website speed and performance testing tool. You can simply enter a website URL select only 1 location out of 35 available global locations provided by Uptrends and hit start to put the performance of any website to the test. The speedy website performance monitoring robots of Uptrends then go through the web page and check your website health and display the Resolve, TCP Connect, and HTTPS Handshake, Send, Wait, and Receive times.
The test report of Uptrends is divided into two main sections: a waterfall breakdown and domain groups. You can find a unique perspective in domain groups as it categorises the resources into different sources such as 1st party, statistics, CDN, social, ads, first-party overall, and third-party overall.
Page Scoring Speed Test
Page Scoring offers you Website Speed Testing and monitoring services that check everything from your domain resolving speed to the download times of your website. Page Scoring offers a simple performance report with a minimalist design which is easier to understand. The website speed test report of Page Scoring includes the following information:
- Domain Lookup
- Connection Time
- Redirection Time
- Page Size
- Download Time
- Average Speed
You can go through all your files and see how long it takes to load each file. Page Scoring is a good catch if you are looking for a quick and reliable website speed and performance testing tool.
Very PageSpeed Optimisation
Very PageSpeed Optimisation is a website speed and performance testing tool developed by Patrick Sexton. You can also find the documentation on how to further optimise your site with tutorials on critical render path, leverage browser caching, and defer loading JavaScript and more included in this tool.
The site speed testing report of Very PageSpeed Optimisation is divided into six different sections:
- Resource Diagram
- CSS Delivery
- JavaScript Usage
- Image Optimisation
- Browser Caching
- Services Used
Show Slow
Show Slow is an open-source website performance testing tool that helps in the monitoring of various website performance metrics over time. Show Slow helps you to understand how various changes to your site affect its performance through a graph by capturing all the results of YSlow, Page Speed Insights, Web Page Test and Dyna Trace AJAX Edition rankings.
Show Slow also allows public metrics reporting and keeps the data for 90 days. You can follow the instructions given on the Configuring Ranking Tools page to make your measurements publicly available on this page. If you want to keep your measurement private then, you can download and install Show Slow on your own server.
Velocity
Velocity is another great tool with a unique approach to testing your website performance. It tests your website and scores it out of 100 scores depending on the performance of your website. You can benefit from the features provided by this site by signing up for a free account. With this tool, you can also track your competitors.
The test report of Velocity is divided into three sections:
- On-Page SEO: This section of the report provides you with insights about keywords, headings, and links (internal links, external links and no follow links).
- Performance: The performance portion of the report includes information about how you have maintained and optimised your web page by knowing its composition such as how many images, scripts or style files it has in total.
- Code Insights: The code Insights section of the Velocity report provides you with useful information about your markup (classes/ids, tags, Google PageSpeed and more).
Dareboost
With just a single click, DareBoost can analyse the quality and performance of a webpage through a comprehensive diagnosis that yields a personalised report. This report not only identifies errors and areas for improvement but also offers precise advice that guides the user through a step-by-step process to resolve any issues. Additionally, the report features an overall score for the page’s quality, as well as scores for specific categories such as Performance, SEO, and Compatibility.
Features
- Website Speed Tests
- Website Analysis
- Website Speed Tests Comparison
- Synthetic Monitoring
- User Journey Monitoring
- API
- Custom Dashboards
Site24*7
By consolidating the monitoring of metrics, traces, and logs within a single console, Site24x7 offers comprehensive oversight across various levels of cloud architecture. With Site24x7, users can track the uptime and performance of their websites, online applications, and servers, and access key performance indicators for web pages and critical multi-step web transactions.
Yellow Labs Tools
Created in 2014, Yellow Lab Tools is an open-source testing tool that aids in optimising web page speeds. It scrutinizes dozens of potential problems, generates a global score, and provides in-depth insights to address any issues that it identifies. Over time, I have continuously updated the tool to align with the latest Web performance best practices. However, the latest release, version 2, is the most significant update yet. Best of all, Yellow Lab Tools is completely free to use.
Sucuri Website Speed Tests
Sucuri is a provider of managed security services for websites. Utilising cloud-based tools, Sucuri offers a comprehensive solution for website security that includes performance optimisation through a Content Delivery Network (CDN), mitigation of external attacks such as vulnerability exploits and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and professional response in the event of a security incident. The company boasts a 97% customer satisfaction rate and offers 24/7/365 customer service, with a median response time of just 4 hours.
However, what we are concerned about now is the website speed test tool. Sucuri has a reliable speed testing tool to give you a detailed analysis of site load time.
Uptime
With a user-friendly interface and multi-region monitoring servers, Uptime is an ideal solution for keeping tabs on your platform’s performance. Additionally, Uptime offers a range of features and customisation options that make it an incredibly versatile and functional tool.
From custom alerting, and speed tests to maintenance mode, Uptime has everything you need to stay on top of your website’s uptime. Best of all, Uptime has a proven track record of reliability, with many users praising its ability to consistently notify them of any service disruptions.
SpeedCurve
SpeedCurve offers both synthetic and real user monitoring solutions to help identify and resolve web performance issues. Renowned companies such as Ancestry, BBC, Casper, Expedia, Shopify, and Zillow have employed SpeedCurve to enhance their visitors’ browsing experience with faster loading times and a more seamless experience. By measuring the interaction between web design and performance, SpeedCurve’s user experience monitoring tools provide valuable insights into visitors’ experiences.
- Multiple browsers and locations
- Lighthouse scores and audits
- Integrates with CI/CD process
- Competitive benchmarking
- Third-party monitoring
- Compare tests
- Google Core Web Vitals
- Correlate web performance with business performance
- Measure User Happiness
- Interactive Debugging Tools
- Javascript monitoring and error tracking
- Control RUM spending with data sampling
Google Chrome Dev Tools
The Chrome browser’s built-in DevTools are an invaluable resource for anyone working on web development or testing web applications. With the ability to test and debug web applications and preview how they will appear on various devices, this tool is a must-have for front-end web development. As a member of an application support team, I utilise the DevTools on a daily basis to quickly identify and address any issues that may arise on our platform. The ease of use and accessibility of this tool make it a go-to option for enhancing the performance of any website.
Read our simplified WordPress backup guide. We break down the process into easy-to-follow steps, empowering even beginners to secure their websites effortlessly.
Summary
With the above-mentioned tools, you can easily test the loading speed of your website and know the bottlenecks and the areas that need immediate fixing. Page Load Speed is the most important yet overlooked ranking factor. It also increases conversion rates for eCommerce websites. Regular testing of your website leads to overcoming bottlenecks and overall improvement of your website.
These trusty speed test tools are here to help you enhance your website performance, ensuring it runs smoothly. So, what’s the holdup? Dive right in, test your website speed and give your site the speed boost it deserves, offering a seamless experience for the users!
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