How to Test Website Speed and Improve it?

In 2021 having a website is simply not enough. Today’s search engines like Google looks for the loading speed of the website. Thus, your website must load as fast as possible. Google wants to serve the users the pages as fast as possible to its users. Therefore, it is learned that the average page load time should be less than 3 seconds.

Here I am going to show you how you can check your website speed and the different free tools available for it. Similarly, I am also going to tell you how you can improve the loading speed of your WordPress website. This will help even if you are using Google Adsense on your webpage to improve the loading speed.

Quick steps to improve site speed

Why does Loading speed matter?

It learned from the various sources that, search engines take into consideration your page load speed to rank your webpage and thereby website too. I have actually tried and tested this on my one of the blog. Therefore, if your website is not loading in less than 3 seconds then, there are fewer chances that you are going to rank on page 1 of google.

So, you must optimize your website to load it faster to serve your clients as early as possible, otherwise, they may leave your website. Secondly, search engines like the website load faster and will bring your page on top as per its algorithms.

Tools for Speed Checking

1. Google pagespeed insights

The best tool to check your page speed by using the Google pagespeed insights tool. This tool will be simple and easy to use. you can check your page loading speed on the desktop and mobile. This tool is simple because you can see the score. If your speed score is more than 90 then you can assume the page is good enough for your users and search engines for ranking. Here is the speed test of one of my blog pages based on the https://127.0.0.1:1585 error for GST.

You can copy above the URL and check it by using the google speed test tool and you will see the score as shown above. Don’t forget to run the test twice at least to see the best performance.

With the above score the website loads within 1.70 seconds on mobile devices.

With the above score the website loads within 0.50 seconds on a desktop device.

After, looking at the above screenshot you may test this webpage too, to see if this also, loads fast as the above page. I want to tell you here is that I have not optimized this website for speed loading. This is because it requires some cost and I don’t want to spend money on speed improvement for this website as of now.

You can check the footer link on the above website to see that it is designed by me only, As the credit of the website Designed by is given to this website.

2. WebpageTest

WebpageTest is another online website to check website loading speed. By using this tool you can check which element is taking how much time to load the complete page. Thus, you can improve the element by optimizing it.

3. Pingdom

Pingdom is almost similar to the webpagetest. It tells you the tested webpage grade ranging from A, B, C, or D.

4. Page speed checker

You can also check the webpage speed by using my tool at the Gaonkar website. Gaonkarwebsite speed test tool. The speed checker will give you a detailed speed analysis of each file. This includes images, javascript, and HTML.

How much money do I spend to get the above results?

10-15 dollars per month (Rs. 730 – Rs.1095). Yes, you heard it right. I have use Cloudflare tools and not the entire pro plan. You can check out the details in the optimize speed section.

Load speed and Google Adsense

Google Adsense is a very important part of a website especially if you run a blog. This is because you may want to monetize your website or blog by placing google ads. However, you will see the loading time is too high when the ads are inserted.

The website loads too slow when ads are inserted because the site loads the ads also when your content is loading. This will impact your ranking.

How to overcome this?

if you are running the website on WordPress, you can use this trick. You must use this trick with other requirements as discussed in the below optimize speed section. Here is how to do it.

1. Install the wordpress plugin called “Flying Script“.
2. After installation Go to its seetings and set the timeout as 3s.
3. add adsbygoogle.js in the include keywords list.
4. Save the changes

In the above step no. you have specified time as 3s. This means the google ads loading file i.e adsbygoogle.js will load after 3 seconds. Therefore, first, your content will load and thereafter your ads. You may also need to delay your other java scripts files which you do not require to load on the initial loading. You can add such files which can be loaded after 3 seconds or on the user movement.

Thus, you may be using a lot of plugins that load java scripts and causes page delay. you can identify such javascript files by using the “Developer Tools” option in google chrome.

Optimize speed of WordPress Website

While discussing the optimization of the WordPress website, the first thing I would say is to keep the WordPress website simple. Here are a few things you should keep in mind while trying to increase website speed.

1. Do not install unnecessary plugins

You may want to install the plugins which will enhance your website experience. However, this will increase your server load too and will tend to reduce the loading time. TTFB (time to the first byte) is the major loading time that affects your website speed. Therefore, ensure you use minimal plugins.

2. use Cloudflare CDN

I am not telling here you to invest huge money in servers. In fact, not even a VPS server. if you are following these things you can get the speed through the shared hosting also.

Therefore, I recommend you to use the Cloudflare free plan and pay only for 2 addons as stated below.
1. Automatic Platform Optimization for WordPress: To activate this option, add your website to Cloudflare and select a free plan. After successful completion, navigate to the speed option and then optimization as shown below.

Thereafter, enable Automatic Platform Optimization for WordPress option. kindly ensure you must install the Cloudflare plugin as instructed below. Without activating the Cloudflare plugin, you won’t be able to enable this option. This is a paid option hence, you have to 5$ a month.

2. Argo Smart Routing: Go to the traffic option from the Cloudflare dashboard. Enable the Argo smart routing option. The Argo is a Cloudflare service that uses optimized routes across the Cloudflare network to decrease loading times, increase reliability, and reduce bandwidth costs for your website.

This is also paid service and you may have to pay as per the traffic you receive. for eg. 5$ for less than 1GB traffic data.

3. Install Cloudflare plugin

Cloudflare plugin for WordPress is free. Therefore, you can download it from the free WordPress plugins directory. You have installed and enabled it before going for above option 2.

4. Install WP fastest cache premium plugin

In order, to achieve the best results you need to install wp fastest cache. you may also try other caching plugins if you see better results. However, this is the best plugin given me the results. Since this is a premium plugin, you will have to pay once and buy it.

5. Load your static content first

Always ensure that your static content loads first to improve the speed. Identify what is loading first by using chrome developer tools. See which java scripts are loading first and exclude the files by adding them to the flying script, if you can delay this. For eg., the javascript file which loads social sharing buttons can be delayed. kindly ensure you do not add the .js required to load your theme.

6. Optimize the images

Always, keep your image size as low as possible without compromising the pixels. You can optimize the images by using online free tools. Similarly, do not forget to use the lazy load option that comes with caching plugin.

After the implementation of the above things, I am sure you will be able to achieve the speed you are expecting. Therefore, if you improve the loading speed then surely you will see the ranking of your website. Also, your users will not leave your site and you will further achieve a better ranking of your overall website. If you have any doubts or need clarification, kindly leave a comment and I will try to answer your question. Also, if you want me to optimize your website with paid service, kindly get in touch with us.