How to Check Website Speed Using These 9 SEO Tools

In the increasingly advanced digital era, website page load speed is a crucial factor in influencing the user experience and the success of an online business. Therefore, measuring website speed is something that must be done.

One of the most effective ways to check website speed is to use tools. Checking website speed is not just limited to looking at the overall loading time; it also involves several other factors and metrics.

From here, you will get various information to improve website performance.

So, how do you check your website speed using tools?

Before knowing it, first understand why a website must be fast and the factors that influence it in this guideline.

Why Should Websites Load Fast?

Overall, there are several reasons why website loading should be fast, namely:

1. User Experience

Google does research on user habits. The research states that 53% will leave a website if it has a load of more than 3 seconds.

Meanwhile, KissMetric also conducted research showing that 79% of users will never return to a website with slow loading.

From the two studies, it can be seen that users expect websites to have high speeds. The faster the website loads, the lower the potential for a bounce rate.

2. Google Algorithms

One of the factors considered by Google in compiling rankings on search pages is website loading speed.

Websites with fast loading have a greater chance of appearing at the top of the SERP rankings.

3. Functionality

Some features on the website require fast loading to run properly. For example, contact forms, search features, or other interactive features.

With fast loading, users can use these features without a hitch. This will have an impact on the user experience.

Factors Affecting Website Speed

Learn how to check website speed by seeing the loading process. Websites with fast loading times will have a positive impact on the user experience.

The loading speed is influenced by several factors, namely:

1. Connection Speed

The type of internet connection will directly affect the website's loading speed. A slow connection will cause the website to load slowly.

2. Hosting or Server

The hosting company or server chosen has a big impact on website loading speed. Therefore, the hosting service provider has an uptime rating of at least 99.5%.

In addition, the choice of hosting and server must be adjusted to the size of the website and its traffic volume. Larger websites are recommended for VPS.

On the other hand, websites with traffic coming from different geographies will need to use a CDN.

This network will pull website content from the closest server to visitors, so it can speed up website loading.

3. File Size and Type

In general, the bigger the file size and the more files that have to be loaded on a website, the longer it will take to load in the browser.

Therefore, optimizing file size with more efficient compression or file formats can help increase website speed.

4. Plugin

Each plugin has different functions and features. Some of them make a lot of database queries and require a lot of assets to load.

These conditions greatly affect the speed of the website. Therefore, having too many plugins will only slow down website loading.

5. Cache

The cache stores recently used information and preloaded copies of pages so they can be accessed quickly.

When you visit the same page, the website loads faster. However, if you clear the cache, the websites you visit will take longer to load.

6. Traffic Volume

The term of bandwidth refers to the amount of data transferred during a certain period of time.

The higher the traffic volume on the website, the more bandwidth is needed.

If the website cannot accommodate bandwidth properly, then it is likely that it has a slow loading speed.

Website Speed ​​Check Tools

Website speed monitoring can be done using various tools. Here are some of them:

1. Google PageSpeed Insights

This tool is provided by Google to provide information about website performance for both desktop and mobile versions.

Knowing how to check website speed using Google PageSpeed Insights can be seen from the score. This tool uses a scale from 0 to 100.

Apart from providing a score, Google PageSpeed Insights also recommends improvements to improve website performance.

2. Pingdom

Like Google PageSpeed Insights, website speed monitoring can be done on Pingdom.

Compared to the others, this tool is known to be easier to navigate and suitable for beginners.

Checking website speed using Pingdom has several advantages, such as being able to measure website speed from various locations around the world.

In addition, this tool will also provide complete information about loading time, file size, content size, and suggestions for improvement.

3. GTMetrix

Another way to check website speed is to use GTMetrix. This tool will provide two main scores, namely performance and layout.

Performance scores are a combination of Google Lighthouse scores and ratings from GTMetrix, such as loading time, page size, number of HTTP requests, and more.

While the layout score is an assessment of the influence of website appearance on the resulting performance.

4. WebPageTest

The next way to check website speed is to use WebPageTest. Compared to other tools, this free website speed check tool can provide more sophisticated data and information.

WebPageTest provides detailed information about loading times, waterfall charts, performance analysis, and factors affecting website speed.

You can use this information to identify problems and improve website performance.

5. Sematext

Sematext is a tool that combines all aspects of website monitoring, starting with website core and performance metrics. How to check website speed with this tool is also quite easy.

You can simply use a feature called Sematext Synthetics. This feature is able to measure website speed in several different locations and on different devices.

Apart from that, Sematext provides a visualization of the parts of the website that need improvement and compares their performance with competitors.

6. Uptrends

Learn how to check your website speed using Uptrends since it's quite easy to do. Just type in your website domain and select one of its 11 global server locations.

Then, this tool will show the Google PageSpeed score, loading time, page size, website core, and recommendations for improvement.

In the improvement recommendations section, Uptrends will prioritize improvements in each category based on their impact on the total loading time.

7. New Relic

If you have more budget, the most appropriate way to check your website speed is to use New Relic. This tool offers a lot of details about website performance.

New Relic can measure website speed for mobile devices and loading times using plugins on websites.

In addition, this website speed monitoring tool has a feature to provide notifications if the speed drops suddenly, so you can solve problems faster.

8. Google Mobile Website Speed Testing Tool

Currently, more than half of website traffic comes from mobile devices. Therefore, the website must be mobile-friendly, responsive, and fast.

To see the responsiveness and speed of your website, using the Google Mobile Website Speed Testing Tool can be the right choice.

This website speed check tool will analyze page loading times on mobile devices and offer recommendations to improve their performance.

How to check website speed using the Google Mobile Website Speed Testing Tool is also quite easy. You only need to type in the website domain, and in seconds, this tool will display the full report.

9. Page Speed Test from cmlabs

Website speed can also be checked with one of the free SEO tools from cmlabs called Page Speed ​​Test.

This tool provides an analysis of website performance based on several metrics related to website speed, as follows::

• Performance
• Accessibility
• Best Practices
• SEO
• PWA

So, that is a guideline for how to check website speed, complete with a discussion of the influencing factors and the urgency of loading fast.

From the discussion above, it can be seen that search engines such as Google consider website speed when determining website rankings on the SERP.

Therefore, increasing website speed can provide significant benefits for SEO and online visibility.

However, website speed is not the only influential factor in determining ranking on search pages. There are still other factors, such as search intent, domain authority, and so on.

Therefore, depending on website speed will not be enough to make your website rank at the top of search results. It takes a well-planned SEO strategy.

However, all of these goals will be in vain if you cannot carry out the SEO strategy properly.

If there are problems during website optimization activities, SEO services from cmlabs can help you implement the right strategy for organic digital marketing.