Website Loading Speed Check - Semalt Useful Tips

The speed of a website can be a critical factor in its success. Higher SEO rankings, higher conversion rates, lower bounce rates, and overall better user experience rates depend on the fast website loading speeds. This is why it is important to use the site speed testing tools to improve your metrics and achieve an optimal site performance.

Below are the TOP 20 tools for measuring a website loading speed. It is important to understand that when you are running such tools, as a rule, the speed will usually be slower the first time. If you're comparing the total load times, sometimes it's better to run tests multiple times and take the average results.

Moreover, in this article, we invite you to discover our free services to allow you to take charge of your website in a short period of time.

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

The PageSpeed Insights (PSI) API reports the page performance on both mobile and desktop devices, and provides the recommendations for improving the page.

Performance indicator

At the top of the report, Google PageSpeed gives a score that summarizes the page's performance. If the score is 90 or higher, the speed is considered fast, 50 - 90 is the considered average. If the score is below 50, the page is considered slow. The analysis is carried out for the current page in an emulated 3G network. The values are approximate and subject to change.

Service recommendations

The service provides the recommendations for actions that can improve the download speed. For example, loading JS / CSS, compressing for the images, improving the performance (rules for using cache, nesting depth, font display settings, etc.). In general, PageSpeed Insights audits more than 16 parameters and gives the recommendations for optimization with a list of problematic URLs, resources and elements for each of these parameters.

Output

Definitely, the service is recommended for use, because:

The service is convenient and analyzes many parameters;
Recommendations are given by Google itself "firsthand" and this should be taken into account if we are promoting under Google.

2. Pingdom Tools

An English language service for testing the page load speed. Check the speed of a specific page, not the site as a whole. To check a page, just enter the page URL and select a check region. For example, if the site is visited by the residents of Eastern Europe, then it is better to choose this region. Pingdom tracks uptime, the performance and the website interactions.

Service recommendations

You will receive the following recommendations:

Performance. Analyzed: use of cookies, CDN, optimization of page components - CSS, scripts, image tags and links, redirects. Each item is given a mark (Excellent - "A", Good - "C", "D", Poor - "F").
Answer codes. You will receive a count for each of the server response codes.
Dimensions by the element type. List of the element types with decoding sizes for each type in quantitative and percentage terms - how much space is occupied by fonts, scripts, images, CSS, HTML, and XHR.
The number of requests to the server for each type of item (in percentage and quantity).
Content sizes and queries by domain. For example, if the elements are loaded from other domains.
And finally, the dimensions and the load times for each element of the page. You can sort the values by size, response type, response time, etc.

Output

A useful free service with many indicators. Has a nice design.

3. GTmetrix

To check the speed in this service, just enter the URL and press the Start button. Usually the speed score in GTmetrix is higher than in the YSlow Score - in our case it is 81% and 77%. As in many similar tools, the test result is displayed in the form of a table with recommendations.

Output

The service is good for testing, thanks to its nice interface and many options. It is also interesting that the test data of the YSlow Score service is integrated into the service. There is extended information on loading each item (waterfall tab). The downside of this service, like many free ones, is the random choice of the region and browser for testing, so the speed can vary from a text to text. For the measurement accuracy, it is better to measure closer to your region.

4. DevTools Google Chrome

DevTools Google Chrome is a useful tool to quickly find out the page loading speed and see what files are slowing down its loading.

To open the tool, you need to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + I (for Windows) or Cmd + Opt + I (for Mac) in the Chrome browser. Or via Menu / Additional Tools / Developer Tools. Or through the context menu of the mouse - item Inspect. At the bottom of the panel we see the final number of the requests and the download speed. It should be noted that only those requests that occurred after the DevTools download are displayed here.

You can also check the loading speed of the site at the different speeds - simulating the real conditions of using the site, for example, with a 3G connection.

Output

The service is good for its accessibility, free of charge, and with skillful use it gives out a lot of useful information. You need to understand the technical nuances and the visual representation. Also, there are no recommendations - you need to interpret everything yourself.

5. Dotcom-Monitor

Dotcom-Monitor is a paid service that has a 30 day trial period. The minimum rate is $19 / month. To check the speed of the site, you need to enter the URL. The service allows you to select a browser, country / city (a list of 29 cities is offered). The interesting thing is, you can select one or several regions. The network performance report includes:

Location report - download times on first and second visit.
10% of the fastest items.
10% of the slowest elements.
Comprehensive diagram for all the queries (waterfall table).
Host element breakdown - including DNS, connection, SSL, query, first batch, and download.
Error checking.

The service also provides the recommendations for improving the site's speed in the PageSpeed Insights tab. This includes optimization of the images, cache, scripts and CSS, content and the other factors. You can share your test results using a link to the report. The service also has many additional tools for monitoring the site, customizable email alerts and the convenient dashboards.

Output

Excellent service that analyzes the main parameters. The disadvantage of the service is that it is paid, but the cost is adequate to the functionality and is quite affordable. As a result, everything that is necessary for a complete speed audit is displayed.

6. DareBoost

An English-language service that allows you to test the page loading speed according to the specified parameters. The test conditions can be selected:

Device type.
Region.

The service allows you to test one site or up to 5 sites with registration for free and without registration. Above this is paid.

Service recommendations

As a result of the analysis, the service gives advice on 10 categories:

Use of cache (list of resources without cache dating, recommendations for compression, script sizes, etc.).
Number of requests (information on redirects, grouping CSS and scripts, resource allocation by domain, CSS sprites, image properties, etc.).
Security (for example, the presence of configurations that protect against malicious attacks).
Accessibility / visibility (for example, layout errors - empty tags, lang attributes, attributes of data submission forms, empty src, link anchors, etc.).
Responsiveness (for example, no obsolete attributes - frames, Java components, Flash, use of UTF-8, etc.).
Quality (for example, errors in CSS and HTML, the presence of a favicon, etc.).
Server data (Apache).
Display in the browser (JavaScript attributes, amount of code, duplicate scripts, etc.).
General data (optimization of code, links, images, fonts, web page size, redirect weight, etc.).
SEO parameters (optimization of Meta tags, URLs, titles, etc.).

Output

Pros: The service gives a lot of practical recommendations and analyzes on a huge number of parameters. Some of the parameters you will not find in the arsenal of the other similar services, such as data on the security or on the duplicate scripts. Cons: free only up to 5 checks.

7. KeyCDN Speed Test

To test the speed, you must enter the URL and select one of the 14 regions of the world for the test. You can also make your test results private or public. In the test results, you will see information on the loading of each element of the page: status, size, loading time and timeline (a scale with decoding of the loading stages marked in the different colors).

Output

You can quickly see how many HTTP requests were made, the total size of the requested page, and the load time. All the information received, in principle, can be obtained manually using DevTools Google Chrome, except that in the KeyCDN Speed Test service, you can select a region for testing.

8. Load Impact

Load Impact is a service that is primarily intended to load the testing and shows how the speed changes with an increase in the number of the users on the site. Also, along the way, it measures the page load speed.

Output

The free version of the service simulates the load of up to 50 virtual users and displays data on the final download speed broken down by the elements. The service does not give the recommendations for the speed optimization, but in the paid version it has many possibilities for the load testing.

9. Monitis Tools

To check the speed you need to register. Further, in your personal account in the Tools section, select the Full Page Load tool, which tests all the elements on the page by simulating the transitions from the different parts of the world. The tool is free.

Output

As a result of the test, we will receive the summary statistics of the downloads of all the page elements in the form of three tables by region: Asia, Europe and the United States, indicating the download speed for each region.

Cons of the service: registration is required, there are no detailed recommendations, and the interpretation of the results is independent. The advantage of the service is the ability to check the speed from the main regions of the world.

10. Pagelocity

The tool tests website loading speed in three sections: SEO, performance and code. The assessment is made on a 100-point scale. To check the speed you need to enter the URL of the page and click "Check". There is no choice of the additional options for checking (like a region or a browser). But, as a result, you will see neatly the presented information:

SEO section. Key metrics: source code size, text size, text to HTML ratio, URL length. And also check 9 more parameters by titles, URL, Meta tags.
Performance section. Size of images, scripts, CSS and loading speed. And also 8 more parameters.
Section Code. TTFB metric (time to first byte), DOM elements and 12 more metrics - response codes, HTTP check, class length, and others.

The service also has an extension for Chrome to make it easier to check the page speed.

Output

Cons of the service: there is no choice of region and browser to check, the general recommendations - without a list of the specific files and elements.

Pros: the recommendations are given in a convenient form, divided into sections. Authorization is not required. There is a browser extension.

Bottom line: the service is ideal for a quick check. If you need a more thoughtful and detailed analysis, it is better to check with the additional services.

11. PR-CY

PR-CY is a multitasking service for the website analysis. To check the download speed, you need to select the appropriate tool and enter the URL, additionally select the type of device - computer or mobile. As a result, the tool provides the recommendations similar to Google PageSpeed Insights, namely:

Overall speed score (with color indication "bad", "good" and "excellent") and response code.
Checking redirects.
Recommendations for compressing resources.
Recommendations for caching.
Server response time.
Recommendations for compressing CSS, HTML and JavaScript.
Optimization of the images, scripts, styles and visible content.
All the recommendations include a list of the specific items to be optimized.

Output

The advantages of the service are free, convenient and informative. No authorization required.

Cons: there is no choice of a region for testing; the speed rating is given in the relative terms (good or bad) without displaying the load time.

12. SiteSpeed.me

It is a simple tool that tests the speed in the different regions. To make a test, you just need to enter the URL of the page. The test result is a table with data on the speed, response code, size and total download time by region.

Also, for each region, the detailed information on the stages of loading and on the loading time of each element is disclosed.

Output

The service does not give its recommendations and only shows an overall picture of the loading stages. It will be useful for those who test the speed from the different parts of the world.

Conclusion

We hope you will find the right tool for your tasks. However, if your goal is to permanently fix the problems with your website and get it to the top of the search engines results, you can try Semalt's services.

We have efficient and functional tools that will help you in a short period of time to:

A unique referencing for the promotion of your website: AutoSEO;
Discover the advanced methods to join Google's TOP: FullSEO.

For all other concern, we have a team of experts available 24 hours a day and ready to accompany you and meet your requirements.

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