How to Run a Website Speed Test – 8 Best Tools
How to Run a Website Speed Test – 8 Best Tools
Speed is one of the most crucial components regarding the optimization of your blog. A faster loading blog can lead to higher conversion rates, longer visitor duration on site, lower bounce rates, higher SEO rankings, better overall engagement, and an enhanced user experience. This is where the speed testing tools come into play.
Testing your blog's speed enables you to set a benchmark which is helpful when measuring the modifications you need to make — essentially, it gives you a strong starting point for updating your blog. Here are some free blog speed test tools available out there that you can take advantage of in order to achieve optimal performance:
Pingdom Tools
Pingdom is one of the most widely known speed testing tools on the internet. Alongside being easy to use, it allows you to choose different geographical locations to conduct a test. The results are presented with an overview that is easy to understand, followed by a detailed report. You receive performance improvement insights to help you quickly address problems.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights refers to a blog performance monitoring tool built by Google. It shows the performance of your blog on desktops as well as mobiles. The tool's report page gives you a helpful breakdown of the steps you should take to enhance performance. Again, it offers you additional user experience ideas for mobile devices.
GTMetrix
This is another well-known speed testing tool that checks your web page's speed and provides you with a detailed report. GTmetrix generates scores for your web page performance and gives you recommendations to enhance them. Additionally, it allows you to test your site in different countries and browsers. You can also be able to check a web page on several stimulated devices as well as track your blog's performance with monitoring and view it in graphs.
DareBoost
This speed testing tool provides quality as well as performance reports. It displays a percentage score for speed followed by issues, improvements, and then successes. DareBoost presents explanations in a distinctive way and requires you to create a free account, to begin with. After checking five blogs for free, you're then required to buy them in order to continue using it.
WebPageTest Tool
WebPageTest is another free blog speed testing tool you can use. It is a little more advanced than some of the other available tools. Notwithstanding, it allows you to select from various browsers and geographic locations to run your tests. It performs advanced testing, including multi-step transactions, content blocking, and video capture. Additionally, it displays a detailed view of each outcome which you can click to amplify and check the full report.
Uptrends
This is another free blog testing tool that allows you to select a browser, geographic location, and switch between desktops and mobile tests. The outcome is simple and easy to comprehend as it also displays your Google pagespeed score in summary. Uptrends allow you to view a detailed report of the web page.
K6
This is among the best tools available out there for testing the speed of your blog. They give you a free blog performance test — 5 reports per month analyzing the implications of having 25 concurrent users on your site and the effect of traffic; this modest traffic has an on-site speed. K6 shows a handy graph illustrating how your load time shifts when more users visit your site.
KeyCDN Website Speed Test
KeyCDN's free website speed testing tool offers an incredibly easy and fast way to determine the overall speed of your blog. It helps you to avoid unauthorized actions and attacks. Alongside providing an accurate real-time report, you can effortlessly configure this tool to suit your specification.
How to Accurately Run a Website Speed Test
Running a blog speed test isn't guaranteed to tell exactly how your site performs. Sometimes there may be more congestion or traffic slowing it down, and other times everything is clear, and you're able to run through it quickly. Therefore, it's essential to run the tests before you begin analyzing the data thoroughly. Here are a few ways you can run your blog speed test accurately:
- Test from various geographical locations — almost all speed test tools allow you to select from different testing locations worldwide, which is quite essential. Depending on the data center where your WordPress site is being hosted, it's crucial to test your speed from a location that is close to your data center and one that is a bit far in order to get accurate results.
- Run multiple tests — although most blog speed testing tools run over the cloud at the fastest internet speeds, every test would display some slightly different results. It's, therefore, suitable to run the test at least three times to get more accurate results. The average result will help you decide whether your blog needs some improvement.
The First Step to Improving the Speed of Your Website
Once you've realized that your site is slow, the next thing is to work on its improvement. And as a beginner, one of the most practical ways to enhance your site's speed is by migrating it to a fast web host. On this account, one of the best web hosting services you can use to create your professional blog on WordPress is BlueHost (affiliate link). A reputable hosting provider like BlueHost takes proactive measures to ensure your WordPress site runs at the speed it should.
Your blog's speed determines how many users you're going to keep. If they have to wait for your blog to load so long, they're not likely to stick around or even return again. Another important aspect of improving your speed is that faster blogs always rank higher in Google search results. This simply means that more people will find your site in the first place, leading to a higher conversion rate.
Final Thoughts
Regularly testing your blog is quite crucial as it helps you establish a benchmark so that you can make improvements. Once you've known where the bottlenecks are, it becomes easy to begin fixing them to enhance your blog's speed.
Are you ready to migrate your blog to a faster web host but aren't sure how to go about it? Do not worry! BlueHost is your go-to solution. Get started with them now through my affiliate link and stand a chance to enjoy a faster web experience, free migration services and exclusive offers for all the fans of Blog With Ben. To learn more about this, get in touch with me today.
Speed is one of the most crucial components regarding the optimization of your blog. A faster loading blog can lead to higher conversion rates, longer visitor duration on site, lower bounce rates, higher SEO rankings, better overall engagement, and an enhanced user experience. This is where the speed testing tools come into play.
Testing your blog's speed enables you to set a benchmark which is helpful when measuring the modifications you need to make — essentially, it gives you a strong starting point for updating your blog. Here are some free blog speed test tools available out there that you can take advantage of in order to achieve optimal performance:
Pingdom Tools
Pingdom is one of the most widely known speed testing tools on the internet. Alongside being easy to use, it allows you to choose different geographical locations to conduct a test. The results are presented with an overview that is easy to understand, followed by a detailed report. You receive performance improvement insights to help you quickly address problems.
Google PageSpeed Insights
Google PageSpeed Insights refers to a blog performance monitoring tool built by Google. It shows the performance of your blog on desktops as well as mobiles. The tool's report page gives you a helpful breakdown of the steps you should take to enhance performance. Again, it offers you additional user experience ideas for mobile devices.
GTMetrix
This is another well-known speed testing tool that checks your web page's speed and provides you with a detailed report. GTmetrix generates scores for your web page performance and gives you recommendations to enhance them. Additionally, it allows you to test your site in different countries and browsers. You can also be able to check a web page on several stimulated devices as well as track your blog's performance with monitoring and view it in graphs.
DareBoost
This speed testing tool provides quality as well as performance reports. It displays a percentage score for speed followed by issues, improvements, and then successes. DareBoost presents explanations in a distinctive way and requires you to create a free account, to begin with. After checking five blogs for free, you're then required to buy them in order to continue using it.
WebPageTest Tool
WebPageTest is another free blog speed testing tool you can use. It is a little more advanced than some of the other available tools. Notwithstanding, it allows you to select from various browsers and geographic locations to run your tests. It performs advanced testing, including multi-step transactions, content blocking, and video capture. Additionally, it displays a detailed view of each outcome which you can click to amplify and check the full report.
Uptrends
This is another free blog testing tool that allows you to select a browser, geographic location, and switch between desktops and mobile tests. The outcome is simple and easy to comprehend as it also displays your Google pagespeed score in summary. Uptrends allow you to view a detailed report of the web page.
K6
This is among the best tools available out there for testing the speed of your blog. They give you a free blog performance test — 5 reports per month analyzing the implications of having 25 concurrent users on your site and the effect of traffic; this modest traffic has an on-site speed. K6 shows a handy graph illustrating how your load time shifts when more users visit your site.
KeyCDN Website Speed Test
KeyCDN's free website speed testing tool offers an incredibly easy and fast way to determine the overall speed of your blog. It helps you to avoid unauthorized actions and attacks. Alongside providing an accurate real-time report, you can effortlessly configure this tool to suit your specification.
How to Accurately Run a Website Speed Test
Running a blog speed test isn't guaranteed to tell exactly how your site performs. Sometimes there may be more congestion or traffic slowing it down, and other times everything is clear, and you're able to run through it quickly. Therefore, it's essential to run the tests before you begin analyzing the data thoroughly. Here are a few ways you can run your blog speed test accurately:
- Test from various geographical locations — almost all speed test tools allow you to select from different testing locations worldwide, which is quite essential. Depending on the data center where your WordPress site is being hosted, it's crucial to test your speed from a location that is close to your data center and one that is a bit far in order to get accurate results.
- Run multiple tests — although most blog speed testing tools run over the cloud at the fastest internet speeds, every test would display some slightly different results. It's, therefore, suitable to run the test at least three times to get more accurate results. The average result will help you decide whether your blog needs some improvement.
The First Step to Improving the Speed of Your Website
Once you've realized that your site is slow, the next thing is to work on its improvement. And as a beginner, one of the most practical ways to enhance your site's speed is by migrating it to a fast web host. On this account, one of the best web hosting services you can use to create your professional blog on WordPress is BlueHost (affiliate link). A reputable hosting provider like BlueHost takes proactive measures to ensure your WordPress site runs at the speed it should.
Your blog's speed determines how many users you're going to keep. If they have to wait for your blog to load so long, they're not likely to stick around or even return again. Another important aspect of improving your speed is that faster blogs always rank higher in Google search results. This simply means that more people will find your site in the first place, leading to a higher conversion rate.
Final Thoughts
Regularly testing your blog is quite crucial as it helps you establish a benchmark so that you can make improvements. Once you've known where the bottlenecks are, it becomes easy to begin fixing them to enhance your blog's speed.
Are you ready to migrate your blog to a faster web host but aren't sure how to go about it? Do not worry! BlueHost is your go-to solution. Get started with them now through my affiliate link and stand a chance to enjoy a faster web experience, free migration services and exclusive offers for all the fans of Blog With Ben. To learn more about this, get in touch with me today.
Written by Ben Cummings
Cofounder of Sage Wave Media
Ben is the Cofounder of Sage Wave Media, LLC which is the parent company of Blog With Ben. He enjoys teaching, blogging, startups, a hoppy IPA, and college basketball. Whenever he's not blogging, you can find him cruising around sunny San Diego with his amazing family.
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