Your website’s speed is important for both user experience and for how well it performs in search engine results. Google ranks faster sites higher because they provide a better user experience. So how quickly should your site load? According to Kissmetrics, 40% of users will abandon a website if it takes more than three seconds to load.
There are a number of common things that slow down a website: large images, too many Javascript and CSS files, or a hosting service that can’t keep up. To get to the bottom of your site’s speed issues, try using some of the website testing tools below. Most offer similar features, but you may want to try a few to compare results.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights is a free tool that analyzes the pages on your site and provides suggestions to make them faster. It’s free, and it separates results by mobile and desktop so you can make sure your site loads quickly on every device.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Pingdom shows you how fast your site is from different locations around the world. It also provides a legend so less technical users can better understand the results.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix analyzes your site for a number of common speed factors. It gives you a grade, category type, and priority level for each one. It also provides detailed recommendations on how to improve each issue. Creating an account will give you access to additional features like historical graphs and a visualization of advanced timings.
WebPagetest
WebPagetest runs three tests and provides a series of waterfall views to show how quickly different components load on your site. It also breaks your content down by HTML, JS, CSS, image, and font to show you how quickly each type loads.
A fast site is critical for user experience and organic search performance. These tools will give you an overview of how quickly your site loads and help you identify areas for improvement.