What’s Your Website’s Loading Speed?
Website speed is one of the key factors to consider building a successful online business. The speed of your website matters. Fast loading websites give internet users an excellent experience. Even search engines like them so much. If your website loads fast and is well optimised, you stand chances of ranking high in search engines. It’s what every online business-minded person wants. To succeed in business online, give priority to search engine optimisation (SEO) and loading speed.
Why Is a Slow Website Speed a Problem to your Business?
Most webmasters focus more on design, content and SEO. They pay little attention to the time a website takes to load. It’s the reason why the majority of the sites on the World Wide Web load so slowly. But people have no time. They are so impatient because they have a lot to do in a short time. They cannot wait for your site to load. Why wait when other websites are offering the same information, products or services? They click away. They run to your business competitors.
A reduced loading speed does not only chase away potential customers but also closes the doors to search engines. Your site won’t rank high in search engines. Slow speed is an indicator of a poor website to the search engines, and reduced website speed leads to loss of business. There is ultimately no business with a website whose loading speed is slow. However attractive your website looks, you will never progress any further with slow loading speed.
How Do You Check the Speed of Your Website?
Slow Loading Websites
Everyone can tell. If you open a page and it takes minutes to load, it means your website’s loading speed is low. But even if it loads fast, there is always something you have to do to improve. With the website loading time, you work on it now and again. Check your website’s speed on all the web pages. See how they load on mobile and desktop. A site may load faster on a desktop but so slowly on mobile.
Website Loading Speed Check Tools
To check the speed of your website, I have identified three reliable web speed tools. Webmasters use them to test, audit and analyse the speed of their entire website pages. They use the results to improve their websites’ speed performance. They include the following:
Google Speed Test for GoLaserEngraving.com
It’s a Google website speed analyser. It’s used to check the speed of your pages. It shows the loading speed score on both desktop and mobile. It also provides a summary of the suggestions or loading problems that should be fixed to improve the loading speed of your site. It’s easy to use. You enter the URL of the web page you want to test and click “Analyze”. Within seconds, you already have your page’s speed analysis done.
Pingdom Speed Test for GoLaserEngraving.com
2. Pingdom
Pingdom speed tester also makes an audit of your website’s speed performance. It provides you with results on the speed score, loading time and page size. It also gives you a summary of issues to work on to improve the speed of your website.
GTmetrix Speed Test for GoLaserEngraving.com
3. GTmetrix
This speed analyser works in the same way as Pingdom.
To test the speed of your website, you may use a one-speed tester or all of them. I use all three to see if they are making similar reports on the issues on which I have to work. The above tools are a must-use to improve your website loading time. I use them to test every page and see where to improve. Paying attention to speed is one of the regular tasks on my sites.
Website Speed Improvement Tools
After testing the speed of your website, you have to improve in your weak areas. Some of the speed improvement tools you can use include the following:
1. W3 Total Cache Plugin
This plugin is for websites powered by WordPress. If your site is on a WordPress platform and you are having a slow speed problem, install W3 Total Cache Plugin. It will help you to solve most of the loading speed issues provided you use the right settings.
WordPress Plugin
2. Smush it
Smush It is a WordPress Plugin used to optimise images. Many times, websites load slowly due to unoptimised images. They take much time to load. Reducing the size of the images improves the speed of your website greatly.
Image Optimizer is a dynamicdrive.com image optimising tool. It is pretty good. I prefer using this tool. It does wonders. It optimises images up to the last resolution. As a tip, always use JPEG format for all your images. JPEG can give you excellent results when optimised.
Conclusion
If you want to build a successful website, give priority to your site speed. Let it be one of your daily tasks. Check the speed performance of your competitors’ websites. You may one day beat them out of business if your site loads faster than theirs.
What is your website loading speed? Do you need help to make it load fast? We’re here to help you at affordable and negotiable prices.
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