How To Check Website Speed?

How To Check Website Speed?

Understanding Website Speed Testing and Optimization

The loading time of a website is crucial for attracting visitors and achieving success in an online business. Faster load times lead to better search engine rankings, higher conversion rates, lower bounce rates, and a superior user experience.

Speed tests simulate a website's performance under typical conditions, providing insights to help optimize its overall functionality. This article introduces several online tools available for conducting these tests.

Key Metrics for Evaluating Website Speed

Website speed testing tools rely on various metrics to analyze performance, with the most important ones listed below:

  • Load Time: The total time (measured in milliseconds) required to fully load the webpage and display it in the browser.
  • Time to First Byte (TTFB): The duration (in milliseconds) for the browser to receive the first byte of data from the server.
  • Requests: The number of HTTP requests the browser sends to the server to complete the webpage load. To reduce these requests, consider the following actions:
    • Combine CSS and JS files
    • Define JS commands within the main file if they are few and do not require a separate .js file (inline JS)
    • Use the CSS Sprites method
    • Minimize the use of plugins that generate excessive external requests
  • DOMContentLoaded (DCL): The time taken to load all HTML elements.
  • Time to Above-the-Fold Load: The portion of the webpage that appears in the browser window without scrolling the navigation bar.
  • First Contentful Paint (FCP): The time the browser requires to render visible content, such as text or images.
  • Page Size: The total size of the content and resources displayed on the page.
  • Round Trips: The number of back-and-forth communications between the browser and server needed to load the page. A round trip occurs when the browser sends the HTTP request to the server, and the server responds with data.
  • Render-Blocking Round Trips: A subset of round trips where resources are loaded in sequence, and some resources must be loaded first before others.
  • Round Trip Time (RTT): The duration taken to complete a round trip.
  • Render-Blocking Resources: Some resources, like CSS and JavaScript files, must be loaded before others, blocking the loading of additional resources. A greater number of such resources increases the likelihood of incomplete webpage loading. To optimize the delivery of CSS files, consider:
    • Properly calling CSS files
    • Minimizing the number of CSS files
    • Using fewer CSS files overall

When Are Online Speed Test and Analysis Tools Useful?

Here are a few examples of the insights you can gain from the results of online testing tools:

  • Identifying opportunities for HTML, JS, and CSS minification
  • Detecting large images that slow down load times
  • Finding render-blocking resources
  • Measuring the Time to First Byte (TTFB)
  • Testing total load time, page size, and the number of requests
  • Performing tests from various global locations
  • Evaluating rendering speeds across different browsers
  • Analyzing HTTP headers, and more

Several popular tools are available for testing website speed, including GTmetrix, WebPageTest, Pingdom, and Google Chrome DevTools, as mentioned in the article "Investigating the TTFB Concept." This section introduces other online tools for website speed testing.

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

Google PageSpeed Insights is an online tool that measures website speed and rates it on a scale from 0 to 100. Scores higher than 85 in regular mode indicate good website performance. This tool tests website speeds for both desktop and mobile platforms and provides recommendations for enhancing performance. It evaluates factors like Time to Above-the-Fold Load and full-page load time. In the mobile device test section, a category called User Experience shows the size of the window the page is displayed in (viewport configuration) and the sizes of interactive elements such as buttons and links.

2. Think with Google

This tool is designed to test the load speed of websites on mobile platforms and generates user-friendly reports that can be shared with website owners.

3. Varvy Pagespeed Optimization

Varvy Pagespeed Optimization generates a report in five sections: CSS delivery, resource diagram, page speed issues, JavaScript usage, and services utilized.

4. Uptrends

Uptrends is a simple tool that allows users to test website speeds from multiple locations. It supports different browsers on both desktop and mobile platforms. The generated report is divided into waterfall breakdown and domain groups.

5. Dotcom Monitor

Dotcom Monitor tests website speed from over 20 global locations. Its standout feature is the ability to perform speed tests simultaneously from all these locations.

6. Yellow Lab Tools

Yellow Lab Tools offers detailed information and unique features not available in other tools, such as JavaScript interactions and issues related to code validation. It ranks the website based on these parameters:

  • Page weight
  • Requests
  • DOM
  • Bad JavaScript
  • Bad CSS
  • Server configuration

7. Sucuri Load Time Tester

Sucuri Load Time Tester is a quick and easy tool for testing website speed from various locations. It ranks websites from A to F, with TTFB being a key metric in speed measurement.

8. Pagelocity

Pagelocity rates websites on a scale from 0 to 100 based on metrics such as social media presence, SEO, resources, and code quality. The tool offers additional features when users create a free account.