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
-
How to optimize my website with new Google Feature snippet fuctionality?
Recently I have interacted with Google's new Feature Snippet Functionality. Please refer to the link shared. https://www.google.com/search?q=family+health+insurance&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN893IN893&oq=family+health+insurance&aqs=chrome.0.35i39l2j0l3j69i60l3.4692j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 I'am looking for the way to optimize my website for the same? If anyone has any clue then please help me with this. search?q=family+health+insurance&rlz=1C1CHBD_enIN893IN893&oq=family+health+insurance&aqs=chrome.0.35i39l2j0l3j69i60l3.4692j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
On-Page Optimization | | adlift0 -
Is it OK to put a Blog Post and a Page within the same folder on a Wordpress hosted website?
Our education company website (hosted on wordpress) has evolved into having content on key topics distributed across both blog posts and pages. For example, "top-pharmaceutical-companies" lends itself to being published as a page. However other content "top-pharmaceutical-companies-usa-2016" lends itself to being published as a blog post as it's more temporal in nature. Now we'd like to establish topical domain relevance for the root keyword "pharmaceutical companies" and build a folder www./ourcompany/pharmaceutical-companies/ But when we look through our blog content, we notice we have "Blog Posts" that would be an excellent fit for certain folders within our "Page" url structure. So would it be OK to amend these blogs post urls addresses to place them within the folder structure of the pages.
On-Page Optimization | | GetReskilled0 -
How to reduced dns requests on magneto website
How to reduced dns requests on magneto website, really stuck, read many documents but no where near resolving the issues.
On-Page Optimization | | Mikaai0 -
Is minor duplicate content on my website okay?
I know duplicate content across multiple websites is not a good thing, however I've always wondered about minor duplicate content on your own website. I know its good practice to have unique content on each page but what about the little stuff. For example on our website certain related pages share the same content in a right sidebar. Such as links to pdf leaflets, or "you can read our blog etc" . Is there a minimum number of repeated words required before its flagged as duplicate content? Another example is a customer gave two testimonials for two of our employees - the testimonials were identical other than the employee names - if these were posted on separate pages is it a problem for the site as a whole or for both those individual pages? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | Brabian0 -
URL for a new website
Hi, I am creating a new website for a client. Is it best to include the keywords from the most common search in the domain name, they would like: forenamesurname.com but should I be recommending: weddingmakeupbyforename.com Does it make much difference to search rankings if the keyword is in the domain name? Thanks v much
On-Page Optimization | | danieldunn100 -
Which speed test to use?
Hi so I have a very easy question I think. I am too new to seo stuff to know better, but which speed test site is the best? I have a construction website. My issue is I am getting mixed results. Pingdom is showing <dl> <dt>Load time</dt> <dd>1.18s</dd> </dl> <dl> <dt>Requests</dt> <dd>22</dd> </dl> <dl class="last"> <dt>Perf. grade</dt> <dd>94/100</dd> <dd>Gt metrix is showing 98/87 with a 2.13 load time.</dd> <dd>And it varies from when I do it.</dd> <dd>So which do I go off of?</dd> <dd>With pingdom, I feel pretty good.</dd> <dd>With gtmetrix I feel like maybe I could improve.</dd> <dd>I ask because I have been looking into a cdn, but because its like learning a foreign language to me, I do not want to go there unless I have too.</dd> <dd>Thank you for any advice on which speed test to view as most accurate</dd> <dd>Chris</dd> </dl>
On-Page Optimization | | asbchris0 -
Website went from page 10 to 31 for a keyword
Hey Everyone I hope someone could really help me here. My website: goo.gl/5fLqv, it is an ecommerce website and just in the last few days for one my keywords "Wedding Favours" it dropped to page 31 from page 10. Could someone help me please on how to resolve this? Thanks
On-Page Optimization | | VIVOWeb0 -
Question about Multi-national Websites
I am about to work on a multi-national site and need some more information about what I should consider regarding: content keyword research anything else My biggest question is regarding content. The company would like a UK version of the site with a different URL, but plan to keep the content essentially the same, with the exception of a few minor details. In this case, would duplicate content still be an issue? If so, any suggestions for working around this? Any strategy information on multi-national sites would be really helpful. Thank you! Erin
On-Page Optimization | | HiddenPeak0