Measuring your website speed should be done regularly. The speed of your website is one of the most important criteria for the Google algorithm. With PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse and Pingdom Website Speed Test, you can easily measure the speed of your website.
In recent years, the speed of your website has become increasingly important. The reason for this is actually twofold:
- Google attaches more importance to this: in recent years, Google has adjusted its algorithm on numerous points. No one has yet been able to fathom this algorithm 100%, but what we do know is that website speed is crucial. The slower your website is, the harder this will be punished by Google. You should therefore strive for the optimal speed of / on your website.
- Visitors have become increasingly critical: over the years, internet users/visitors have also become increasingly critical. Does an internet user have to wait just one second too long for your website to load? Then there is a very good chance that your website will be clicked away. This applies not only to visitors who surf via a PC, but also to mobile visitors.
For these two reasons alone, you should get started with the speed of your website. But – how do you find out exactly what the current speed of your website is? For this you can best use one of the tools below. In our opinion, these are the best tools for testing the speed of your website.
PageSpeed Insights
This is without a doubt the most useful tool for measuring website speed. With this tool you can see the speed per web page. This speed is then indicated by a number between 0 and 100. The higher this number is, the faster your website is. In an ideal world, your website should have a score of 100/100.
The nice thing is that you also look at all kinds of recommendations in this tool. This tool indicates, for example, on which points your website scores poorly. By working with these points in a targeted way, you improve the performance of your website. In the long run, you will be able to work on the speed of your website in a targeted manner.
However, it is not the case that this tool works completely flawlessly. Some websites have an unprecedented loading speed, but do not score 100/100. We therefore advise you not to focus on the 100/100 score. You would be much wiser to get started with the recommendations of PageSpeed Insights.
Lighthouse
Just like PageSpeed Insights, Lighthouse is also a tool from Google. This is an open-source and fully automated tool with which you can improve the quality of your website. The focus is not only on the speed of your website, but also on the overall performance of your website.
To use this tool, you must have Google Chrome on your PC. Once you’ve downloaded Chrome, you can use Lighthouse in two ways:
- Chrome DevTools: via this tool you can have an ‘audit’ carried out on your website. Google now creates a report in about one minute, containing all kinds of findings / recommendations with regard to your website.
- Chrome extension: you can also choose to download the lighthouse extension. After you have done this, you can run a report within 15 seconds. In this report you will not only find the speed of your website, but also recommendations to improve the speed / performance.
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Are you very curious about the speed of your website? Then you can also use the Pingdom Website Speed Test. This is a tool from the Swedish company Pingdom; this company offers numerous tools for optimizing your website.
Some time ago, this company also came up with a Speed Test. An important advantage of this Speed Test is that it is completely free. We also believe that it is quite simple to measure the speed of your website with this tool.
Enter your website in URL and then choose the desired location. You can choose from seven locations around the world. We advise you to choose the location in Frankfurt or London. Do you have an international website? Then you can of course better choose one of the other locations.
After you have let the tool do its work, you will be presented with a clear report. Several elements emerge from this report:
- A total performance score: of course it is the wish that this score is as high as possible
- A total loading time: of course it is the wish that this loading time is as short as possible
- Total page size: this is also an important element that you can work well with. By adjusting your page in a targeted way, you can make it a lot smaller. That means that your page loads even faster.
- Number of requests: This is the amount of requests you have on your website. We prefer as few requests as possible, as each request takes time.
Please note: when testing the website speed, this tool uses caching. Of three types of caching even, making it wise to have the test run several times. After you have performed the test a few times, you will see that the results now remain the same. Then you know that you have run a reliable test.
Conclusion
Regularly measure the speed of your website. And then get started with the recommendations in a targeted manner. By taking the recommendations seriously, you will only make your website better and better. Could you use some help with this? Or do you not fully understand how the tools work? We are happy to be of service to you. For every WordPress website we like to measure the speed and optimize this speed!
