5 Free Website Speed Test Tools: Check Your Website Performance

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Website Speed Test Tools

Struggling with a page loading problem? Want your website to run frequently? Are you aware of the fact that your online presence can make or break your website? In today’s world of the internet, a minimal delay in site loading can lead the visitor to head back to the search engine results page to find the new website which contains all the needed information. To improve your webpage loading speed, web developers, marketers, and IT departments are putting their 100% efforts into website speed test tools. 

The speed of the page influences the performance of the website in every arena starting from the user experience to search engine optimization (SEO). Mostly, it has been observed that many website users halt for about 4 seconds for a page to load before they switch to some other task. 

Have you ever thought about how will you get to know about your website speed? Welcome to free website speed test tools – that help determine your site’s performance without leaving your browser. These tools do not only give load time statistics but also other information that makes it easier for one to see where the problems lie so that the website runs optimally. In this blog, we will draw your attention to the 5 best website speed test tools, which will help you shape the prosperous future for your site, ensuring that it has the best user experience possible and stays competitive online.

 

What is Website Speed?

 

Website speed means how long it takes to load a web page and show all the information the page contains, such as text and images, videos, and other features. It is a critical feature that defines the functionality and overall efficiency of a site and can easily make or break it. This is because faster-loading websites enable users to navigate more comfortably while slow-loading websites create discomfort and high bounce rates which discourages the users from the website and losing opportunities to interact or buy. For example, let’s suppose you are shopping for a new pair of clothes online, and the site functions very slowly so after getting frustrated by the lag problem you thought of moving to another website. 

Why is Website Speed Important for SEO?

Website speed is very important to calculate the overall performance of your website. The speed of your site can easily analyze whether a user is going to stay on your website or not. Also, it is crucial to note that the current search engines, especially Google, place a lot of emphasis on site speed as one of the factors that they use in ranking websites in the SERP’s top. So, if your site loads slowly, it is completely irrelevant how many backlinks you have received or how many keywords your blog posts have targeted — your site will not be successful.

There is some exciting news for you, if your site is doing everything well but still not getting success on SEO, a page speed test can reveal that your efforts are not inflated. It is just a sense of giving your website speed a boost. So, below are a few points that will tell you why website speed matters:-

  • Slow load time is another issue that is detrimental to SEO.
  • Site speed is related to your bounce rate.
  • Web page speed influences your conversion rate.
  • It can make users develop a negative attitude toward your brand and thus affect their decision to engage in repeat purchases from your company.

What factors affect site speed?

Does the speed of the website affect your interaction with potential customers? If your website is running slowly, it loses the interest of the user thereby allowing them to leave the website. A website that takes less time to load is attractive to the users rendering higher usability and a better ranking implies more organic traffic. This then leads to a better conversion rate hence a rise in sales. To learn how to maximize the speed of the website, some factors must be taken into consideration. This review will thus focus on the various aspects that should be observed to make your site more reliable.

Page Weight

The volume of resources required to load a website takes a toll on the performance of a site. JavaScript files, videos, bulky CSS files, and high-definition images all contribute to the ‘bulk,’ or duration, it takes a page to load. The simple reason that websites should not be very heavy has become relatively hard to do over time with the development of various new web technologies and the complexity of most websites.

Network Conditions

Some websites are even developed to be light but still fail to load quickly on browsers due to network issues. The availability of Local Area Network (LAN) equipment and the performance of the services offered by the ISP affects network connectivity. Moreover, mobile devices that run on 3G or 4G instead of relying on an internet connection over WiFi will experience slower connection networks. While this is mostly beyond the control of developers, there are ways to get at web resources fast irrespective of the connection.

Number of Redirections

Many web designers employ the use of redirections so that their website pages can be accessed using different URLs. These redirections are crucial to drive traffic to your site, but the proper use is required here as well. When your site has unnecessary redirections then the loading time is affected because they act as a hindrance. Thus, there are possibilities to distinguish and analyze the present redirections and eliminate the unnecessary ones.

Browser

Another important factor that affects the site speed is the type of browser that we use to load the content. The older versions of the browser tend to struggle when loading certain codes. If this is the case you will notice that they take a lot of time to load as they are incompatible. Hence, one would wish to use a browser that supports page caching. Besides, new versions of browsers are constantly being released, and it is recommended to choose the most recent one to get an option that is individually tailored and launched faster.

Related Services: Website Speed Optimization

 

5 Best Website Speed Test Tools

Now that you have gained knowledge about what website speed is, why it is important for SEO, and what factors affect site speed, let’s discuss about 5 best website speed test tools. Website speed test tools can help you calculate the speed of the page you are browsing. So, what is the wait for? Quickly scroll down to learn more about the website speed test tools online that will improve your overall website performance.

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

 

Google PageSpeed Insights

 

Google PageSpeed Insights is one of the most important Website Speed Test Tools. This tool grades your website performance from 1 to 100. The higher the number is the better your website is analyzed. If PageSpped Insights has given your website a grade above 85 it simply indicates that your website is performing well. PageSpeed gives you reports for both the desktop and mobile versions of your site. You can view recommendations for improvements such as if you need to minify CSS or optimize your images. You can also use the PageSpeed Insights Checker to calculate the speed of your website. 

2. GTmetrix

 

GTmetrix

 

Want to test your website speed? Make use of the GT Metrix website speed test tool as it is one of the leading tools that every beginner can operate for free. The test available for public use does a very good job of annotating performance while staying fairly simplistic. When your test is complete, you’ll receive two main scores: a score that GTMetrix says is just but a compilation of your Google Lighthouse performance score and some of the scores GTMetrix conducts itself together with this page layout that gives an understanding of how your page is built for performance. 

If you are willing to test repeatedly on multiple browsers, locations, and connections, then you have to log in and the free version can store your twenty past tests and data. You can compare data from various tests and download the waterfall charts created so you can easily identify something slowing your website’s loading.

3. Pingdom

 

Pingdom

 

Pingdom is the same as Google PageSpeed Insights as it also grades the website performance between 0 to 100. Pingdom Website speed test tool is easier to navigate and better for beginners. You can test your website based on location; it will also assign you a performance grade, page load time, page size, content size – by content type, the number of requests, and tips to make your website faster. It is also quite simple to rerun a test by simply clicking the screenshot of your, page.

Pingdom provides more precise results to help even a nontechnical person or an IT wizard identify an issue and correct it as soon as possible. Each of the seven criteria of your site’s load time is given an A to F letter grade, as well as a brief explanation of why. 

4. Uptrends

Uptrends

Image Source: Uptrends

When conducting your speed test, Uptrends brings up to 226 locations for you to select from. It is then possible to select to test it on a desktop and or mobile. It is even possible to set screen size and also to enable or disable speed throttling of the emulated connection. At one time, and not that long ago, this was nothing more than a pretty run-of-the-mill site – although they have increased their range. As will be observed in their report, their breakdown is done both in a waterfall fashion and domain grouping. However, The domain groups provide a perceptive view since they divide the resources according to the sources.

5. WebPageTest

WebPageTest

Image Source: WebPageTest

 

WebPageTest is very similar to some of the tools above but you have over 40 location options and over 25 browsers including mobile. It gives you an F-A grade from the result of FTTB, compression, caching, an efficient use of a CDN, etc Its report has six sections which are; a summary, an elaborate section, performance analysis, content content analysis, and screenshots.

Conclusion

Hope that now you will not struggle with the problem of website page loading. There are 5 best website speed test tools mentioned that will surely help you analyze the performance of your website. As you start using each one of the tools you will find that every tool works differently and has its different features. You can use those tools free of cost so what is the wait for? Make use of these tools today and get your website performance analyzed. We, at W3era, provide you with the best free SEO tools and on-page SEO services that will surely help in solving your problems at the earliest. Stay tuned with us to learn more about such exciting information. We are happy to help you!