As a beginner blogger, it’s essential to optimize your website’s performance. Utilizing free tools to measure and analyze your website’s speed can help you identify areas for improvement. I know I do it all the time and it’s actually very helpful to have a tool pointing me in the right direction of improving my site, or the site of our customers since I do work with WordPress development. And by doing that, I also learn new stuff on how to optimize my websites. For instance, to use .webp image format, whenever possible.
So by taking advantage of these resources, you can ensure your blog runs smoothly and efficiently or at least you can ensure that it will identify the problematic areas, and if you can’t fix it yourself, you know how to explain the issue to someone that can.
Let’s see what we have:
- GTmetrix: analyzes website speed and performance, provides recommendations for optimization, and offers a comparison with industry averages. (I use that a lot)
- Google PageSpeed Insights: analyzes website speed and performance, provides recommendations for optimization, and offers a score based on Google’s best practices. (I also use that a lot)
- YSlow: analyzes website speed and performance, provides recommendations for optimization, and offers a score based on Yahoo’s best practices.
- WebPageTest: analyzes website speed and performance, provides a detailed breakdown of load times, and offers recommendations for optimization.
- SpeedCurve: analyzes website speed and performance, provides real-user monitoring and synthetic testing, and offers a comparison with industry averages.
- Lighthouse: analyzes website speed and performance, provides recommendations for optimization, and offers a score based on best practices from the Web Performance Working Group.
- Page Speed Checker: analyzes website speed and performance, provides recommendations for optimization and offers a comparison with industry averages.
- Pingdom Website Speed Test: analyzes website speed and performance, provides a detailed breakdown of load times and offers recommendations for optimization. (Another favourite)
In conclusion, there are many free tools available to help you check the speed of your website and optimize it for better performance. Each tool has its own set of features and can be used in different ways. Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced webmaster, these tools can help you get the most out of your website. Do you use any of the above? Let me know in the comments below!
