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As a small business owner, conducting website speed tests ranks high on my to-do list.
The logic is simple:nobody likes a slow website.
A website loading in 1 second has three times more conversions than those taking 5 seconds.
For insights specific to the Chinese market, refer to our guide ontesting website load time from China.
And its not as complicated as it might sound to a beginner.
you’re able to simply input the URL and get any web page evaluated in a few minutes.
you could trust Geekflare
At Geekflare, trust and transparency are paramount.
It works without signing up.
However, you would have a smaller choice of 20 locations to test from that way.
Uptrends Pricing
Uptrends offers a 30-day free trial.
Just input the URL address and choose the machine, desktop or mobile, to trigger the test.
you might also share the report directly on Facebook, X, LinkedIn, and WhatsApp.
However, if you want to test your websites load time programmatically, tryGeekflares Siterelic Lighthouse API.
In addition to page-specific analysis, you’re free to monitor the problems of an entire website.
Sitechecker doesnt stop at this and also indicates solutions.
Its popularity is well deserved since it comes directly from Google, whose search engine enjoys89.74% market share.
PageSpeed Insights measures your website based on Googles state-of-the-art core web vital assessment.
The checker also provides consolidated lab scores for performance, accessibility, best practices, and SEO.
Each category has a detailed breakdown of every element and suggestions for improvements.
Its a handy tool for any beginner.
On the downside, you dont have any option to grab the testing server locations.
However, this is also its biggest limitation.
There is no option for scheduled tests, and you dont get to retrieve historical data.
For one, GTmetrix is based on real surfing app-based testing using an unthrottled connection.
Plus, it allows testing from specific locations, devices, resolutions, and connections.
you’re free to also create page-load videos and prevent ads.
Its advanced options support HTTP authentication, allowlist/blocklist resource loading URLs, and cookies.
Developers can also opt for a custom DNS by using DNS override and adjusting the gadget pixel ratio.
GTmetrix Pricing
GTmetrixs free tier provides 5 tests/month for 6 months.
you could use this for testing from 7 global locations and with limited testing customization.
Paid plans start at$4.25/monthand go up to$510/monthbased on individual and business requirements.
Clicking on a location gives you a waterfall page load representation.
A toggle at the top highlights just the errors.
Signing up unlocks more power.
Dotcom-Tools Pricing
Its free plan permits testing from 5 locations with a total of 250 tests/month.
The prices below are valid when billed annually.
Pingdom
Quick Page Load Analysis
Pingdom is a straightforward page inspection tool I have used many times.
It has a beautifully simple interface requiring the subject URL and the preferred testing location among 7 checkpoints.
Thanks to its popularity, your test will most likely be queued with others.
I personally use Pingdom website tests for my projects and I cant recommend it enough.
Pingdom Pricing
Pingdom offers a 30-day free trial.
Afterward, you’re able to switch to the paid plans starting at$10/month.
WebPageTest
Best for Power Users
CatchPoints WebPageTest measures real user experience with support for advanced testing configurations.
Beginners can choose a connection bang out, screen resolution, and gadget to start with.
CatchPoint has also provided the flexibility to conduct a Lighthouse audit alongside.
The results are in-depth and pinpoint every aspect you might need to troubleshoot.
The free version lets you test from 3 locations: New York, Munich, and Melbourne.
WebSitePulse Pricing
This tool comes under the Website Monitoring module, which has a 30-day free trial.
I could also see the useful waterfall analysis of the requests and how they impact the page load time.
This is a big number, telling us the importance of image optimization.
Images are often the heaviest and most prevalent resource on the web.
As a result, optimizing images can significantly improve performance on your website.
One very effective image optimization technique is using advanced formats, such as WebP and AVIF.
Most modern browsers support WebP, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera.
AVIF also enjoys compatibility with popular browsers, barring Opera Mini.
Lazy loading is another way to optimize user experience.
It loads images gradually based on the users viewport scrolling.
This makes the web page usable instantly without downloading all the resources (images) upfront.
Finally, lossy and lossless compression also works without significantly affecting the visual experience.
The improvement was always marginal (1-3%).
However, it can work for projects with huge CSS/JS/HTML files.
Another downside of minification is it makes debugging difficult by making the code practically unreadable.
Therefore, it’s crucial that you keep an extra copy to make changes later.
In most cases, other optimization methods will work better.
Fortunately, WordPress users have multiple plugins (such as WP Rocket) for this.
Moreover, some CDN providers (ex., Cloudflare) offer minification as an additional feature.
The logic is simple: having origin servers everywhere is prohibitively expensive and complex to maintain.
Moreover, its an excellent solution for websites capped with bandwidth limits.
There are multiplefree CDN providers.
The idea is to save static assets until TTL (Time To Live).
After TTL, a web web app fetches a new version from the origin or edge server.
Therefore, internet tool caching is useful, but you oughta be mindful of its tool.
Its fully controlled by the site admins, with no dependency on the users web app or machine.
you’ve got the option to implement server-side cache with in-memory solutions like Memcached or Redis.
Alternatively, CDNs offer a distributed caching solution to serve content via edge servers closer to users.
Moreover, popular web hosts, such as Cloudways and SiteGround, provide built-in server-side caching.
This technique deploys a compression-decompression cycle to reduce page size and enhance loading speed.
you could deploy Gzip or Brotli, two leading lossless compression algorithms modern browsers support.
Generally, web hosting providers have this turned on by default.
If not, it’s possible for you to configure compression by modifying the.htaccess file.
Optimize Your Page Load Speed With Website Checkers
Creating a website has become easier than ever.
you could get started right now and go live within an hour.
On the bright side, you have many tools with a free tier that troubleshoot speed.
Check each listed tool and decide what serves you the best.
