Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Website Speed Testing Tools
-
I have been experimenting with a number of plugins to speed up the loading of my wordpress site and find that website speed testing tools are all over the map when it comes to results. Even the same tool can produce vastly different results. Does anyone have experience with one that is both dependable and consistent?
-
The trick with sitespeed testing, Brett, is that you need to approximate as closely as possible the experience a real user will have.
By far the best tool for this in my experience is webpagetest.org.
It uses actual browser rendering for it's test, not a synthetic imitation. it also allows a couple of other critical customizations:
- select which browser you want to test your site with (you'll be surprised at the differences! Use you Google Analytics to tell you which browser majority of your visitors use)
- Select what sort of connection speed to test from (eg slower DSL which will also mimic phone users or faster cable connection)
- select a specific city to test from (this will have major effect - e.g. you should test from the San Jose location which is much more realistic for your Comox location than an east coast or southern US test would be)
- run a mobile-specific test
- shows both first load and repeat visit (particularly tests caching effectiveness)
- provides a waterfall view so you can exactly which elements may be causing issues
The app also provides full Google Page Speed results/recommendations and a number of other trouble-shooting tools.
GTMetrix provides a number of these, but doesn't have the same flexibility/customization available, I've found. (Though it is using a Vancouver-based server for your test from here (Alberta) which is useful.)
Note that you will get different results each time though, if you're using a real-life tool. That's due to differences in network load and latency and even different load on your server each time tested.
Finally, below is a screenshot demonstrating why you absolutely need to use a real-life test, not just synthetic Page Speed or YSlow scores - the site has a beautiful synthetic score yet a disastrous load time (due to server issues)
Paul
-
thanks Matt. Will give it a try
Brett
-
I found YSlow helped me effectively optimize the loads speed there is so much that you can do to help you with this. Hows the optimization going? My tools of choice were firebug and yslow - I also installed pagespeed from Google Webmaster Tools when doing this work.
-
Tried a tool called Gtmetrix that provides a yslow input
-
Hi Brett - when I have been optimizing the loading of one of my wordpress sites I have found YSlow is effective. Have you used it?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is page speed important to improve SEO ranking?
I saw on a SEO Agency's site (https://burstdgtl.com/search-engine-optimization/) that page speed apparently affects Google ranking. Is this true? And if it is, how do I improve it, do I need an agency?
On-Page Optimization | | jasparcj0 -
Is NitroPack plugin Black Hat SEO for speed optimization
We are getting ready to launch our redesigned WP site and were considering using NitroPack performance optimization plugin, until some of our developers started ringing the alarm. Here is what some in the SEO community are saying about the tool. The rendering of the website made with the NitroPack plugin in the Page Metric Test Tools is based entirely on the inline CSS and JS in the HTML file without taking into account additional numerous CSS or JS files loaded on the page. As a result, the final metric score does not include CSS and JavaScript files evaluation and parsing. So what they are saying is that a lot of websites with the NitroPack plugin never become interactive in the Page Metric Tools because all interactivity is derived from JavaScript and CSS execution. So, their "Time to Interactive" and "Speed Index" should be reported as equal to infinity. Would Google consider this Black Hat SEO and start serving manual actions to sites using NitroPack? We are not ready to lose our hard-earned Google ranking. Please, let me know your thoughts on the plugin. Is it simply JS and CSS "lazy loading" that magically offers the first real-world implementation that works magic and yields fantastic results, or is it truly a Black Hat attempt at cheating Google PageSpeed Insights numbers? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | opiates0 -
How long should my website content be (max and min number of words)?
I saw a web site which has been number 1 on Google for a long time, and the home page has 5700 words, but the results show it is not spam, so what would be the recommended word number for a home page?
On-Page Optimization | | Majapopa0 -
How does the suggested website functionality work in Safari?
I don't seem to be able to find out much information on this one. Safari often shows a suggested website as you start typing a query into the browser. I've uploaded a screenshot to help show what I mean. safari-suggested-site.png
On-Page Optimization | | edwardlewis0 -
Duplicate Content - Bulk analysis tool?
Hi I wondered if there's a tool to analyse duplicate content - within your own site or on external sites, but that you can upload the URL's you want to check in bulk? I used Copyscape a while ago, but don't remember this having a bulk feature? Thank you!
On-Page Optimization | | BeckyKey0 -
When writing content for a website what is the optimal copy length?
My site is currently in the mist of a redesign and I’d like us to compile some recommendations on the length of copy for a page to rank well but can't seem to find any up to date articles on this.Does anyone have any suggestions, comments, or feedback?Thank you.
On-Page Optimization | | PorshaAndrea0 -
Webmaster tools
Hi there, I have access to my sebsite writeing www.piensapiensa.es or www.piensapiensa.com. What domain should I add to the webmasters tools? Should I have to do some kind of 301 direction from piensapiensa.com to piensapiensa.com as the main market is in Spain? Thanks.
On-Page Optimization | | juanmiguelcr0 -
Keyword Density Tools
Does anyone have recommendations on the best tool(s) to use to check the keyword density of each page of a website? I'm not sure if SEOmoz has such a tool.
On-Page Optimization | | webestate0