Checking Mobile Site Response Time

[theLotter]

What is the best way to check the response time of a mobile site?

Can this be done in Google Analytics/Webmasters?

[bridget.randolph]

Hi Sara,

The tool Tom suggested sounds good, although I haven't used it personally.

A couple things I do to check mobile site response time:

• Google Pagespeed Insights is really good and provides recommendations for how to improve page speed.

• If you're using a Chrome browser, you can also use the right-click 'Inspect element' feature to view the load timeline.

• In 'Settings' (the cog in the lower right corner) choose 'Overrides' > 'User Agent' and select a mobile user agent. (NB: you can skip this step for a separate mobile site with a URL different to the desktop site if you're able to access the actual mobile site via a desktop)
• Exit the 'Settings' overlay and choose the 'Network' tab. There is a 'Timeline' column which shows the time each element of the site took to load.

Hope that helps!

[TomRayner]

Hi there Sara

GTMetrix will be able to do this for you.  It's a free tool that lets you measure response time and also suggests improvements based on Google Page Speed and YSlow guidelines.

What I'd recommend is registering your email (for free) so you can customise and save your test.  You can tweak it on testing location, what browser to use (specifically for mobile you can select Chrome for Android) and what connection to use - again, you can choose a 3g or 2g connection to get some idea for load times on mobile networks, not just on wireless.

Hope this helps.