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 -
What to do to index all my links of my website?
Ok, i have a new website, with only 14.000 page indexed by google, but the potential is big, 1-2 million pages. What i have to do, to force somehow google to index my website faster? This is my website: https://vmag.ro/
On-Page Optimization | | TeodorMarin0 -
Community Discussion - Are Rich Snippets a Worthwhile Tool to Keep in the Online Marketing Toolbox?
We've heard a lot about Rich Snippets in the last few years, especially with regard to how they can help move the needle for ecomm brands. In the latest YouMoz post - 5 Essential E-Commerce Rich Snippets for Your Store - Aleh Barysevich provides some easy-to-follow tips he's used to help brands find success using Rich Snippets. What about you? Have you found Rich Snippets to be all they're cracked up to be?
On-Page Optimization | | ronell-smith4 -
How do i know about my website content quality is good or bad?
According to Google updates, content is the main part of the website ranking, so how do i know about my website content quality...if you have any type of tool for check website content quality please refer to me.
On-Page Optimization | | renukishor0 -
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 -
Is there a tool that will "grade" content?
Does anybody know of a tool that can "grade" content for Panda compliance. For example, it might look at: • the total number of words on the page • the average number of words in sentences • grammar • spelling • repetitious words and/or phrases • Readability—using algorithms such as: Flesch Kincaid Reading Ease Flesch Kincaid Grade Level Gunning Fog Score Coleman Liau Index Automated Readability Index (ARI) For the last 5 months I've been writing and rewriting literally 100s of catalog descriptions—adhering to the "no duplicate content" and "adding value" rubrics—but in an extremely informal style. I would like to know if I'm at least meeting Google Panda's minimum standards.
On-Page Optimization | | RScime250 -
Plagiarism or duplicate checker tool?
Do you know a plagiarism or duplicate checker tool where I can receive an email alert if someone copies my content? I know there's a tool like this (similar to http://www.tynt.com/ though people can still remove the link from the original source) but I forgot the name or site. It's like a source code that you must insert in each of your webpage. Thanks in advanced!
On-Page Optimization | | esiow20131 -
Website accessible on http and https. Is it bad?
We noticed that our website is accessible on: http://www.example.com and https://www.example.com Both the versions have page rank of 4. Though on https version we have added canonical tag indicating http:// version as preferred. Is this fine or we need to use 301 redirect and let the site be accessible only on http:// version??
On-Page Optimization | | CyrilWilson1