Here are 5 Easy FREE Tools to test the speed of your web page. Please understand that each of these web page speed tests, only test the current page, not your entire website. I will explain more below on the importance of testing more than just one Homepage and how to determine what web pages you should be testing.
- Pingdom’s Website Speed Test
(Be sure to test from the same location each time) - Yahoo’s YSlow
(browser plugin) - Google’s PageSpeed Insights
- GT Metrix
(Uses Google Page Speed and Yahoo! YSlow) - WebPagetest
Let’s not repeat everyone else’s mistake
Please don’t make the mistake that most of us make and only test the speed of your homepage and ignore the speed of the rest of your web pages. So many of us will test our homepage with the tools above and see how fast it loads, then make an adjustment or two, if any, and be done with the testing and not test any other important web pages of the website. This is a critical mistake to make -speed does matter. There are too many studies done to list that prove why this is important. Not only is speed a ranking factor with the search engines, but it is just important as a conversion factor for your visitors, which helps you get more customers from your website.
How do I find my websites important web pages?
You may ask what are the other important web pages on my website. Well, if you don’t know what these pages are or what your money pages are, you can simply open up any of your analytics program and see what your top web page are at a glance. If you don’t have an analytics program installed on your website, you can have a couple of free ones installed within minutes, so you can find out how visitors are using your website and converting.
After reviewing your analytics, make two lists that determine your plan for speed testing. I would use a sampling of the last 30 or 60 days from your analytics program to create the lists below.
In the first list of pages, start with your homepage and list the next 4 web pages that get the most traffic excluding the homepage. Here are some examples of web pages that might show up for your list.
First Tier Web Pages:
- Home page
- A product category web page for “Camo Caps”
- A product category web page for “Nike Golf Shirts”
- Product landing web page for “Camo Cap”
- Product landing web page for “Nike Golf Shirt Dri-FIT Pebble Texture Polo Shirt”
In the second list of web pages, were going to list five pages that aren’t in the First Tier Web Pages list. These web pages will be money pages, sign up pages and any other web page that is important to your business.
Second Tier Web Pages:
- About Page
- Client Testimonials
- Client/Reference List
- Join Our Mailing List
- Product Samples of Work
You should test each of these web pages and make sure their load times are as fast as possible. However, each web page can have different, yet acceptable load time based off the type of web page. For example, if you have a page that is primarily text and just one or two images, your logo and an image inserted in the content, it should load faster then a product category page that would have your logo and 12 or more thumbnail images of products being listed.
Now let’s test our Top 10 Entrance Web Pages
After you have tested and optimized these 10 web pages, you should go back through your analytics program and make a list of the Top 10 Entrance Web Pages of your website and remove from the list any web pages that were in your previous lists and test their speed as well. By taking this approach, you are attacking web pages that are bringing you the most traffic and web pages that you find important to your business. In addition this exercise will get you in the habit of optimizing each new web page you create not only for quality content, but for speed as well.
Do you have any questions on web page speed testing?
I hope this post has made it easy for you to find and determine the important web pages on your website that you should be testing. If you’re unsure on how to accomplish optimizing your websites top web pages and would like help or would like to send us a message, please contact us. We will be glad to help answer your questions.
If you know of any other free tools we haven’t mentioned that help you test the speed of your web pages, drop them into the comments!