7 Essential Website Speed Tests: Don’t Lose Visitors to a Slow Site
When a customer first lands on your site, the last thing you need is for them to be waiting for a page load or to be underwhelmed by the page speed. Fast websites with minimal page load times rank higher in SEO rankings, are more likely to be found on Chrome, Google or Firefox, and tend to offer a smoother customer experience.
Just about any website including Wordpress, Android, Javascript, HTML or CDN-based websites that hesitate to present information in an optimized fashion may as well be signaling to customers that their business isn't important. Improving web performance, increasing page speed, and properly running speed tests can not only improve retention but also lead to higher conversion metrics as well.
In this article, we’ll talk about the importance of a proper website speed test and how you can properly check your website performance.
Why Is Web Page Optimization Important?
Page speed is a term used in the industry to define the time it takes a specific webpage to load. It's important to remember that website complexity and page size are always involved in the equation.
According to a Kissmetrics report, around 40 percent of users will leave a page if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
Pages that load faster offer a better user experience and are more likely to retain users.
Google includes page speed as one of the top ranking factors right alongside SEO and attention-grabbing headers. This means that any CSS, DNS, or HTML-based web page that takes too long to load may never appear as a top result on the Search Engine Result Page.
This holds true for both mobile and desktop users. In fact, because mobile users are typically in a hurry and are hypersensitive to latency and poor optimization they may leave a slow webpage quicker than desktop users who are waiting for plugins and other software to load.
Surprisingly, about 73 percent of mobile users appear to be unhappy with page speeds. This small factor can cause businesses to lose clients as it can affect the conversion rate.
A good example is Walmart, which saw an increase of two percent for every second of increased website speed. You will find several more similar examples on the internet.
Page speed can even increase loyalty and retention, increasing the amount of time that any one visitor spends on your website.
Ready to Boost Your Site Speed and Conversions?
Book a Free Website Performance Audit with O8 Today.
How Can I Check Webpage Speed?
It's commonly believed that the easiest way to check page speed is simply to open a webpage and objectively determine how long it takes to open. If you are truly looking for an optimal website speed test or web page performance check, we would suggest any of the below online performance tools and performance monitoring sites.
Why Use Multiple Tools?
Each tool has its strengths and may give slightly different results due to variations in testing methodologies. Using a combination of these platforms can provide a more complete picture of your website's performance and highlight areas for improvement.
#1 Google PageSpeed Insights
Google’s own tool, PageSpeed Insights, can measure the performance of a webpage for desktops and mobile devices, providing insights into Core Web Vitals such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Based on Lighthouse, it offers a score between 0 to 100 points and includes waterfall charts alongside other uptime metrics.
The higher the number, the better the performance. A score of 85 or more is considered acceptable Anything below 80 requires intervention.
On the positive side, Google offers tips on what you can do to improve website speed, including optimizing for Core Web Vitals. However, some of these tips can be hard to implement. It’s best that you hire the services of a professional agency to take care of things.
#2 WebPageTest
My personal favorite, https://www.webpagetest.org is a powerful, free online tool designed to measure website performance. It provides detailed insights into how quickly a page loads, including various metrics like First Contentful Paint (FCP), Time to Interactive (TTI), and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).
Using real browsers and devices, WebPageTest allows users to run tests from multiple locations around the world, emulating real-world conditions. The tool breaks down each aspect of page load, from server response to resource loading, giving developers a complete picture of potential bottlenecks or optimizations.
What makes WebPageTest especially valuable is its comprehensive diagnostic features. Beyond load time metrics, it offers waterfall charts, speed index calculations, and video captures of loading sequences. These advanced insights help developers identify and prioritize performance improvements, often surfacing details that standard analytics tools might miss.
For any team focused on user experience, WebPageTest is an invaluable resource for diagnosing and optimizing performance, leading to faster, more reliable websites that improve user satisfaction and search engine rankings.
#3 Pingdom
Pingdom has a free website speed checker feature that displays results in waterfall view with the option to filter output by file size, load times, and load order.
Just like our first pick, Pingdom offers a score between 0 to 100 points. The result is broken down into twelve elements, each with an individual score. This feature can help developers identify improvement areas and make changes.
The website speed test tool is extremely popular among beginners due to its ease of use. Moreover, it keeps a history, which makes it easier to track improvements.
#4 Google Analytics Site Speed
Google Analytics provides valuable information including site speed, allowing you to conduct a website page speed check. You can access this feature by going to your Google Analytics dashboard. You’ll find it under the ‘Behavior’ section.
GA uses a snippet added to a page to find information including webpage-load time, execution speed, and document load time.
Though not the most popular website page speed testing tool, Google Analytics can be helpful for users who want more data. However, GA is known to provide inaccurate results since it uses random sampling to collect data.
#5 Google Mobile Website Speed Testing Tool
This is the era of mobile-friendly sites with a growing number of people using phones and tablets to access the web. Google pays special attention to mobile viewing and encourages developers to take steps to ensure websites are fast to load on hand-held devices.
Powered by Google PageSpeed Insights, Google’s mobile speed testing platform is aimed towards agencies and marketers interested in optimizing for mobile.
The tool is fast and reliable; however, waste no time trying to achieve a perfect score as that may not be possible here.
#6 GTmetrix Website Speed and Performance Test
A standout feature of GTmetrix is its ability to test websites from multiple global locations, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of performance across different regions. Users can monitor their site's performance over time, set up alerts for performance dips, and analyze how their page loads on various devices. These capabilities make GTmetrix an invaluable resource for developers and website owners aiming to enhance user experience and optimize site performance.
#7 KeyCDN Website Speed Test
Last on our list is KeyCDN’s free tool. Said to be perfect for WordPress sites, this platform allows users to select from 14 locations to know exactly how a website loads in different parts of the world. This can be of huge importance for developers interested in attracting international users.
The website gives the option to save history for later viewing. We also liked the breakdown report that shows deep insights including total download time, wait time, and content size.
Ready to Boost Your Site Speed and Conversions?
Book a Free Website Performance Audit with O8 Today.
Don’t Trust These Tools Alone
While the tools discussed above are great at what they do, but may not be able to help you find all of the bottlenecks that are showing up in your performance testing.
There may be a misunderstanding of how to use these tools, and what those results actually mean in a given context.
Put www.berkshirehathaway.com into Google PageSpeed. From the metrics you can tell the site is fast, right? Now take a look at the website, the simplicity allows for quick page load times.
There is no doubt that speed is a function of website complexity, and is relative. HelpSystems.com is a global company with a website that's translated into multiple languages. Their website has extremely quick response times for a complex site.
Next, put in https://www.huffpost.com/ into Google PageSpeed. Pretty slow, right? This is a national newspaper. Their website is not "slow" or poorly designed -- it is fast, given the complexity of the site, which includes things like the number and size of images. We tried putting in the New York Times' website but it didn't even load.
Next, put in https://www.harvard.edu/. Pretty slow, right, especially on mobile?
It's Harvard — the website is not slow given its complexity. If Harvard's target audience were in Africa with 3G cell phone service and limited internet speeds, it might make sense for them to design their site closer to www.berkshirehathaway.com. But, since they are based in America, with an American target audience, where speeds are ever-increasing, including the introduction of 5G, this is not a concern, and their website loads just fine.
General Website Monitoring Tips:
Run and Rerun Speed Tests
Don't make the mistake of running a test for page speed only once. Try multiple platforms and run several tests to ensure you get the right result.
If you see a vast difference in results each time you run a test, it might be due to caching.
Your Content Delivery Network (CDN) may affect your page load time. Consider running some tests with CDN enabled and some with CDN disabled to gauge the impact it has on website loading speeds.
Remember the Location
Your website will never have the same load time in every part of the world. It might load in two seconds in some countries and take four in another. This is because the speed largely depends on where your website is hosted and where it’s being viewed.
A website hosted in Australia will be slow to load in the US due to the distance between the two countries. It may, however, load fast in Australia.
Test loading speed using different locations to know how your website loads in each country.
Your website must be fast to load in countries you’re trying to target.
How Long Should It Take For My Website to Load?
Most people believe that the ideal website load time is between two and five seconds, however, some reports suggest that each second beyond 2 causes potential visitors to bounce
off pages due to poor site performance.
According to verified stats, about 47 percent of desktop users expect sites to load in less than three seconds.
If you want to retain people then you must take steps to ensure your site doesn’t take more than two seconds to load, be it desktop or mobile. This can, however, be hard to attain since several factors affect website PageSpeed including content, hosting server, and coding.
You need professional web developers who know how to diagnose and fix the problems keeping your website from operating at top speed and efficiency - O8 can help.
We’ve been in the industry for years and have helped clients have faster and more efficient websites. Contact us to learn more about our services and how we can help you improve website performance.
Ready to Boost Your Site Speed and Conversions?
Book a Free Website Performance Audit with O8 Today.
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