Do you know how important web page speed is?
Have you ever been to a restaurant and waited so long for your food that you wanted to pull your hair out? Yeah….It’s the same with websites.
So much can be gathered from the speed of your website. Speed can determine how users see your brand, how many conversions you will generate, and determine where you rank in the search engine.
I could go on all day about why your page speed is important, but there is a more important matter at hand. You must first determine if your website is slow. A big DUH moment right?
But anyway, I’m going to show you how to test your website using GTMetrix and what to look for when testing.
One Test isn’t Enough
Throughout the different times of the day you may receive different amounts of traffic to your website or there may be variations of usage of the server if you are on a shared host server.
It’s imperative to do multiple tests throughout the day because it can give you an idea of what times you get the most traffic. With this knowledge you can know when is the best time to post content.
Location
GTMetrix has servers worldwide that test your website speed. What server your website is being testing from is important.
If you are running a local business it’s recommended to just test your website with a server that is closer to you.
If you are running a global business it’s imperative to test your website using servers all over the globe because customers in other countries are going to be using your website.
When you make a GTMetrix account, it will allow you to choose different locations to test your website and even let you compare them side by side.
GTMetrix Server Locations:– Dallas, USA
- Hong Kong, China
- London, United Kingdom
- Sydney, Australia
- Mumbai, India
What Should You Test?
You want to test all your web pages not just your homepages because your homepage isn’t the only page on your website and most likely doesn’t bring in most of the traffic. Test all your pages to get a better understanding of the page speed of each individual page.
Doing this, you can understand why pages are getting a certain amount of traffic.
Maybe it’s a product that your audience is interested in. Maybe the webpage just holds a lot of content and it takes a little longer for the page to load.
GTMetrix
GTMetrix is a free online web page speed tester. Its features are limited until you create an account (free). You can also upgrade to a PRO account which is completely optional. I made a free account and it does wonders.
I’m now going to show you how to test your website using GTMetrix.
1. Go to http://gtmetrix.com
2. Input your web address in the field under where it reads: Analyze Performance Of and Click Analyze.
3. Results
Understanding the Data
- PageSpeed Score and Y Slow Score- these scores show how the components of a website impacts its speed. It presents recommendations below on what to do to increase your web page speed.
- Fully Loaded Time- Shows how fast it took the page to fully load.
- Total Page Size- Shows how much memory is on each page.
- Requests- How many times the webpage was requested.
Overview
GTMetrix tests your web pages and give you more of an understanding of your website. Doing this on a regular basis will ensure that you will have a successful website.
