Welcome to my 12 Days of Christmas series!
Every day between now and January 5, the end of the 12 days of Christmas, I’ll be featuring a different category of free blogging tools.
Each day a bite-sized blog post of blogging tools grouped by function for your convenience.
This post will explain the necessity of using site speed tools and then recommend Google site speed tools, additional site speed tools, and site speed tools which will help you compress your images.
Bring on Day 4 of the 12 Days of Christmas: Best Free Site Speed Tools
Clearly, checking your site speed is of paramount importance.
First, if your site loads slowly, you could annoy readers who will quickly leave. This will hurt your traffic and your bounce rate.
Also, Google likes to show fast loading sites to its users.
Consider these comments:
“Page speed seems to be the area where I focus so much attention. I periodically check page speed on GT Metrix, Page Speed Insights, and Pingdom. I’m not sure which of these is the most accurate and would appreciate your thoughts on the best place to check page speed.” (Source: Steve on Alert: Do You Know These 5 Hidden Blogging Costs?)
These 7 site speed tools will help you test your website speed so you’ll know if your site is running slowly.
Google Site Speed Tools
GTMetrixÂ
GTMetrix is my go-to tool when I want to check my site speed. Since I currently run two themes on my blog– the Child theme and the Genesis theme– my blog consistently runs too slow.
How slow is too slow? GTMetrix will tell you.
Once you put in your website, GTMetrix will quickly scan your site and return with two results– Google Page Speed and YSlow Score.
Google PageSpeed Test Tools
Google developed page speed test tools designed to test a website’s performance. Gaurav Kumar recommends Google site speed tools.
AMP
AMP stands for Accelerated Mobile Pages. Run by Google, AMP provides a way for web pages to load almost instantly. According to Wikipedia, AMP was designed to compete with Facebook’s Instant Articles.
[Read:Â How to Set Up Accelerated Mobile Pages for WordPress]
More Site Speed Tools
WebPageTest.org
You can use WebPageTest to check your site’s speed using two browsers: Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.
While GTMetrix is my go-to tool to keep tabs on my web site’s speed, blogger Haseeb claims WebPageTest.org is his personal favorite.
Pingdom
Use Pingdom to monitor your website’s performance. Pingdom offers a 14-day free trial and then it becomes a paid tool.
Site Speed Tools Used to Compress Your Images
Your images slow your site’s loading time since they take time to load. By compressing your images, you can speed the time it takes to load your website.
EWWWÂ
The EWWW plugin will optimize your page loading time by compressing your images. EWWW was my first image compressor.
Smush
I currently use Smush to compress my images. My site’s loading speed was sluggish so I switched to Smush.
Wrapping Up
I look forward to your opinions in the comments. Readers, what site speed tools do you recommend?
Related Reading
Plugins tend to seriously slow a website’s loading speed.
This guide will show you how to make dofollow and nofollow links without the use of a plugin.
