6 way to test website performance

The quality of a website is determined by its performance, or how quickly it loads and how easily visitors can access the website.

A fast loading time can benefit your website’s SEO. It’s now an important factor that determines your website’s position on Google’s search engine, both on desktop and mobile searches.

Your loading time will also impact the bounce rate of visitors. With a high performing website, first time visitors are more likely to come back.

There are two main factors that can influence website speed. Your choice of the web hosting provider is an important factor, as different providers have different server response time and use different equipment. An example of a reliable web host is Hostinger, thanks to the many technologies they implement to improve website speed and security.

Another essential factor is your website’s code efficiency. A poorly coded website with lots of line breaks and empty spaces will load much slower than those with cleaner codes.

Here are several ways to check your website performance. Some of the tools listed here also give additional insight into which area slows your website down and how to improve it.

1. Pingdom Speed Test

Pingdom is one of the most popular website performance test tools on the internet, with more than 70 global locations to test websites.

To use Pingdom, you only need to input your website’s URL and choose the testing location.

Your result will come out as a summary of your website’s performance grade, the page size, the load time, and the number of requests required to load the page.

After the summary, Pingdom will also list the percentage of content size and requests by content type and by domain. This information will help you figure out which content type and requests make up most of your website.

At the bottom of the page, you’ll also get a short summary of how much time it takes to finish each request stage on your webpage.

2. Google PageSpeed Insights

Since 2010, Google has made page speed one of the essential requirements to rank higher in its search engines. To make it easier for website owners to check, Google has PageSpeed Insights. 

With PageSpeed Insights, you can check the performance of your website with both mobile and desktop browsers.

It first gives you an overall performance score and an overview of whether your website passes the Core Web Vitals assessment.

It also lists several data points of the amount of time it takes to load different aspects on your website. At the bottom, PageSpeed Insights gives a detailed suggestion about what can be done to improve your website performance.

3. GTmetrix

Just like the previous tools, you only need to input your website’s URL to check its performance with GTmetrix.

If you haven’t signed up, GTmetrix has a given location and browser selection optoin to check your website with. It gives you an option of seven locations and two browsers (Firefox and Chrome) when you have signed up for free.

The report page shows overall performance scores by PageSpeed and YSlow metrics, and lists the time, page size, and requests made on your webpage.

It also gives a list of recommendations to improve both the PageSpeed and YSlow metrics. 

4. Web Page Test

Like Pingdom, users can choose to test from different locations with the Web Page Test. It has 40 different global polling locations to choose from.

Web Page Test also allows you to check your website performance with three different browsers: Firefox, Chrome, and Opera. You can also check your website’s speed from a variety of mobile devices and internet connection.

Unlike the previous tools, the Web Page Test doesn’t grade your website’s performance metrics. Instead, it gives comprehensive information about the metrics, showing the time it takes for different stages to complete.

The test also includes a waterfall breakdown, a screenshot of the site, and a visual preview of the website in the filmstrip view.

5. Dotcom Tools

Dotcom Tools has a series of free tools designed to check website performance, including a website speed test. These tools are made by Dotcom-Monitor, a website monitoring company that specializes in web monitoring and load testing.

It also has more than 20 locations to choose from and various browsers and mobile device options. 

After typing in the URL, choosing the location, and the browser, it will then give you a list of the loading times and the download sizes of your website from each location.

It also gives you a detailed review of the fastest and slowest elements, error details, and a waterfall breakdown.

6. Yellow Lab Tools

Yellow Lab Tools is a free, open-source tool to check your website performance. It has three different device options: desktop, tablet, and phone.

It also has additional settings, like adding cookies to your test and authentication if you need one to access the site.

Your performance report will come out in the form of an overall score and a series of scores for different categories.

If you need additional information about a score, you can click on it and it will show a description of what this score means and how to improve it.