Website Speed Test Tools

Updated 23 June 2020

Do you know how high audience expectation is of the loading speed of a typical webpage?

With passing years and staggering improvements to web-based technology, the average browser is accustomed to speedily loading pages and apps. If your website is lagging even a second behind the ideal loading time, you risk losing the interest of your potential customers, so carrying out a website speed test is very important.

In fact, Google has been putting even more focus on the importance of site speed, with a recent update to the Google Search Console tools that will be incorporated into its ranking algorithms from 2021.

You can now check your Core Web Vitals report to get a better understanding of how Google sees your webpages, not only from a site speed perspective, but also based on User Experience signals.

Still not convinced that page load time is important for your website's optimized online performance? Take a look at some of these statistics:

• According to the Aberdeen Group a one-second delay in page load time leads to a drop in page views by 11 percent, conversions decrease by 7 percent and customer satisfaction by 16 percent. (source)
• KissMetrics report that 47 percent of consumers expect pages to load within 2 seconds or less
• 79 percent of shoppers who are dissatisfied with a site are less likely to return to the site again.
• 52 percent of online shoppers report that quick loading speeds are important to brand loyalty. (source)
• When traffic was at the peak, 75 percent consumers would jump to competitor sites instead of bearing with a slow loading page. (same source as above)
• Oportent even suggest that faster pages make more money, stating that page views increase by 100% when pages load within 1-2 seconds. (source)
• Since 37% of the web is built on WordPress (at the time of writing in 2020), it's worth checking out our Guide to WordPress Site Speed as well as How to Speed up Your WordPress Site.

Heck, even Google seems to like page load time so much that they have added it as one of their many ranking signals. Back in 2010, they made an announcement that your site speed would affect your search rankings and its importance grows with the time.

So, if you regard usability and SEO highly for your website's online success, you must pay attention to your website's page load time.

Bonus WooRank plug:

You can find ways to optimize your your site speed using our performance checks by running a Free WooRank Review.

Site Speed Performance Tools

Today, I am going to list out useful page load time measurement apps that will help you detect the loading times of your website. One of our popular blog posts from the past lists 20 Quick Tips To Optimize Page Load Time. You can test your site's speed using these apps and then apply these tips to your site for an optimized web performance of your site's pages. Even better, all these website speed test tools are FREE.

1. Webpagetest

Webpagetest Free Page Load Time & Website Speed Test Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ webpagetest.org)

• You get step by step information of the time taken to start to render the loading of your webpage till the time it is fully loaded. You can even view the screenshots of loading stages on your website, under the option screenshot in the main menu.
• You get a waterfall chart of the content breakdown of your website load. These different content elements are represented by different colors. They are html, js, css, image, flash, font and others.
• You get a page speed score out of 100 and page speed optimization tips below it. Take a look at the sample screenshot below:

PageSpeed Score With Page Speed Tips On Webpagetest (image credit "“ webpagetest.org)

• You also get a complete optimization checklist, under the _Performance Review_menu along with some more tips to optimize your page speed.

2. PageSpeed Insights

PageSpeed Insights Google Page Speed Measuring Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ developers.google.com)

• Google's PageSpeed Insights tool offers page speed analysis of both desktop and mobile versions of your site.
• You get a page speed score out of 100.
• If there are elements on your page that you need to consider fixing in order to optimize your site's speed, the website speed test lists all those, along with a link that shows you how to fix them.
• The report also tells you what you have done right on your website that helps optimize its loading time.
• It gives you a score for your site's loading time on a mobile as well as for the user experience. The mobile page loading time score is followed by useful tips that will help improve your mobile site's loading time.
• You can also install Chrome and Firefox extensions to your browser.
• You can avail (an invite-only) page speed service from Google. Click here to access the form to receive an invitation.

3. Yslow (By Yahoo)

YSlow Yahoo Loading Time Measurement Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ developer.yahoo.com)

• This is an add-on app for browsers.
• It grades websites out of 100 based on overall performance from the three predefined rules set.
• Summarizes the page's components.
• Offers tips for optimizing page loading times.
• Provides tools to optimize web page performance, wherever applicable.

4. GTMetrix

GTMetrix Loading Time Measurement Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ gtmetrix.com)

• It gives your webpage a GTMetrix page speed grade along with a Yslow grade.
• You can download a PDF version of the report.
• It gives you charted history of page load times, page sizes and request counts and page speed and Yslow scores, as shown in the screenshot below:

Three Types Of Historical Web Page Performance Statistics From GTMetrix (image credit "“ gtmetrix.com)

5. Pingdom Website Speed Test

Pingdom Website Loading Time Measuring Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ tools.pingdom.com)

• It gives you website performance grade (out of 100), number of requests, load time, page size and out of what percentage of tested websites is your website faster.
• It gives you a waterfall chart of your website's performance with different colors that indicate the different stages of a request (DNS, SSL, Connect, Send, Wait, Receive), different icons for various content types (HTML, Javascript, CSS, Image, Text/Plain, Redirect, Warning and others).
• See how your website scores against various performance parameters from Google Page Speed and Yahoo's Yslow, under the _Performance Grade_tab.
• You can track your performance history, test from multiple locations and share your results.

6. Web Page Analyzer

Webpage Analyzer Loading Time Measuring Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ websiteoptimization.com)

• Get page size, composition and download time of your website.
• It sums up a list of page components with relevant comments against each.
• The report also gives recommendations for your site to optimize your site's speed.

7. Page Speed Tool (By Internet Marketing Ninjas)

Page Speed Tool Loading Time Measuring Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ internetmarketingninjas.com)

• Get an extensive page load analysis that includes page size, load time, download speed and average speed.
• The tool gives you estimated load time of your site for various connection speed.
• Along with a waterfall chart, you get a detailed analysis of the external CSS, Javascript and image files found on the page.
• What is unique about the tool is that when you roll over your mouse on the breakdown of links you see a quick snapshot of the image file, as shown in the screenshot below:

8. Website Speed Test

Website Speed Test Loading Time Measurement Tool (image credit "“ pagescoring.com)

• It is a pretty simple tool that gives data time taken to resolve your domain to connect to server IP, time taken to connect to web server, redirection time, page size, download time and average speed of connection during download.
• It also shows you sectioned view of how long different files on your website take to load.
• The tool is pretty basic and it gives lesser information compared to the tools listed above.

9. Site Speed Checker

Site Speed Checker Loading Time Measuring Tool Sample Report Screenshot (image credit "“ seomastering.com)

• It is similar to the above tool that lets you compare your site speed with competitor sites. The only difference is you can run a comparison for site speed of ten sites simultaneously.
• It gives you comparative information about response time, file size, load time and loading speed (kb/s).

Wrapping it all up

So, these time measuring tools are available to you for free on the web. You can choose any one of them and have a constant check and diagnosis of your website's performance in terms of loading speed.

It is important to check your site speed on a regular basis. Your site may load faster on your web browser due to cached content but it may not load that fast on your customer's browsers. Hence, website loading time testing tool can be a real eye-opener as to what your site's real loading time is.

Most of these tools give tips that are technical. So it is best if you have your website developer with you when running these tests on your site. Since, the changes made to optimize a site's loading time requires a lot of work it is not feasible to have the test done on your site every now and then. You can keep an interval of four to six months between each test. In cases, where you add new images or plugins to your site, you must check your site speed using these tools, after changes have been implemented to your site.

Let us know in comments which online tool you use to check your website's loading time and what is for you the key metric