How to check website loading speed: the best services
Website loading speed is one of the most important ranking factors and the characteristic that users pay attention to in the first place. If the resource page opens extremely slowly, then with a high probability a person will leave it without waiting for the full load.
How to understand that the site is loading normally, and what else speed affects – I will tell in today’s article.
Why website loading speed is important
Google claims that if the page load speed exceeds 5 seconds, then this increases the chance of bounce many times over. You can’t argue here, because few people will be interested in studying a site that cannot quickly solve the problem. If the site will load quickly, then this will allow:
- Attract more clients. This is especially true for the mobile version, since today most users use smartphones. Therefore, first of all, you should take care of the speed of the site in the adaptive version.
- Improve user experience. And here again about attracting customers. Suppose that we have created a stylish site with a well-thought-out structure and easy navigation, and it seems to us that such a site will bring a large flow of customers. This will only work if all elements are loaded at the fastest possible speed.
- Increase conversion. The faster your resource loads, the higher the conversion you can get from buyers who did not leave your site after viewing the first page.
In general, any resource that has been created to promote services and make money on it must load quickly and work stably.
How Speed Affects SEO
As I said at the very beginning, speed directly affects the ranking of sites – Google reported this back in 2010. Now this parameter has become even more important, and here’s why:
- search engines directly measure loading speed by prioritizing fast sites;
- search engines monitor people’s behavior: if pages are visited less often and closed more often, then the rating goes down.
Behavioral factors are what any site needs to rely on. If the download speed is worked out, then the content of the site will be studied more willingly and its position in the search results will increase noticeably.
What is a fast site?
Even with a good internet connection, the site may load very slowly. For example, if the page has a lot of uncompressed 5 MB images, then even the fastest internet will not help.
Browser settings and device type can also affect speed. In general, under any conditions, loading should be approximately 2-3 seconds. In extreme cases, 5-7 seconds, but if the page loads for 10 seconds or more, then you need to take prompt action.
It is worth considering the location of the target audience of the site. If everything is clear with large regions – the site will fly with proper optimization, then in remote places it can load slowly. For example, in the northern regions, there may be extremely poor connectivity, and even an optimized site will open within 10 seconds. In such cases, it is important that your resource loads faster than a competitor’s site. This is what you should pay attention to if you are in unusual conditions.
How to speed up page loading
First of all, it is worth understanding why the site is loading slowly. This may be due to two factors:
- the speed of the server where the site files are stored;
- the software part of the resource itself.
Pages may open slowly if the server has problems or is located geographically far away.
But even if there are no complaints about the server, the site itself can be “heavy”. Cluttered code, a large amount of unoptimized content and the use of outdated solutions – all this slows down the resource.
Work on speeding up the site is best left to professional developers. In the optimization process, it is important to strike a balance between technical characteristics, usability, functionality and content.
However, if you have a little bit of code knowledge, you can improve page loading on your own. Here are some universal tips to help speed up any site:
- Optimizing web fonts. Use the WOFF2 format for modern browsers. Preloading will let you notify the browser when to load the font file. The font mapping feature provides a flexible way to control how the browser behaves in the event of a file download delay.
- Image optimization – loading large images causes the site to load significantly slower, and sometimes so slow that you have to wait 15-30 seconds. You can solve this with the help of special programs that will reduce the size of the picture. Services like this will result in lossless compression, so users won’t even notice the difference.
- Data compression – page code should be as simple and optimized as possible. Remove uncomfortable designs, replace them with simpler options. Remember that data compression will speed up the resource and prevent you from losing potential customers. Use static compression to ensure that the server provides users with the latest compressed version of your site.
Also, special services can help improve loading speed, such as Google Page Speed Insights, which provides individual recommendations for solving problems.
Services for measuring site loading speed
Many services for measuring page loading speed allow you not only to find out how quickly a resource opens, but also to understand what slows down loading. Based on the data obtained, you can increase the site loading speed, improve its interface and make it the most popular for search engines.
Google PageSpeed Insights
A popular SEO tool that determines the loading time of pages on mobile devices and desktops, as well as gives recommendations for code optimization. Loading is simulated using Lighthouse technology. In addition to everything, the report uses observational data – for example, how the tested page was loaded in Chrome by other users.
Pingdom Tools
A tool that uses over 70 global factors to analyze a website, including loading speed. The service evaluates the download speed in milliseconds and gives general recommendations.
With Pingdom, you can analyze web resource uptime, performance, and user interaction in detail. The final table contains complete data for each of the requests to the server: scripts, pictures, and so on. Thanks to this, you can understand what prevents the site from loading faster.
GTmetrix
GTmetrix is a simple and convenient service that helps you check your website loading speed in seconds. It keeps a history, thanks to which you can track the progress of optimization, and also includes Google PageSpeed Insights and YSlow analysis. Offers relevant recommendations for different types of errors: redirects, image optimization, JavaScript and HTML usage, etc.
Up Trends
Free Website Speed Test is a free tool inside yet another website, application and server monitoring platform.
UpTrends provides 9 locations for the test in the US, Australia, Europe and Asia. Plus, you can specify the screen size, connection type and browser, measure the speed not only on a PC, but also on mobile devices. You can also connect regular project monitoring, but you will have to pay $11 per month for this.
PR-CY
Comprehensive Russian-language service for site analysis. Among the free features there is also a speed measurement. You can also analyze the indexing parameters of a web resource in the search for free, check it for viruses and sanctions, view traffic statistics, evaluate social activity, usability.
In the paid versions of the tool, you can set up to 60 addresses for comparative analysis and check the server response codes, the loading speed of each page, and meta tags.
Web Page Test
The service conducts three tests and compares the number of hits. This is how errors in the organization of caching are detected, data is collected for each download. Of the features: it saves screenshots and shows which group of requests took the most time to load.
Another interesting tool inside WebPageTest is Visual Comparison. It allows you to analyze the loading time of several sites at once.
Sitespeed
Another Russian-language service that allows you to check the download speed of the site and assess its availability. It sends several requests to a given page from different data centers and evaluates the speed of each. Based on the results of the test, recommendations for improving performance are issued. You can also receive the generated report by mail.
Conclusion
Page loading time is an important ranking and usability factor. With a slow download speed, traffic will decrease, as the resource will feel bad in search results. However, do not forget about high-quality content, SEO promotion and proper advertising settings – without this, there will be no result either.