Your website page speed, how fast your page loads, is important. First, it can positively or negatively affect your search engine rank. Second, it can positively or negatively affect your site visitor’s experience. If your pages load slowly, many visitors will move on. How can you determine your page speed? How can you fix your page speed?
How to Determine if Your Website is SLOW
Usually, you can tell if your pages load slow just by looking at them. If they take 10 seconds to load, they are slow. If they load in a second or two, they are fast. But there’s a more scientific method to test page speed. Go to https://developers.google.com/pagespeed/ and test your pages. If your page speed is below 70, it’s slow. If it’s between 70-80, it’s about average. If it’s between 80-100, it’s pretty fast.
IMPORTANT: Test your site at different times of day. The speeds may vary greatly.
If you have Google Webmaster Tools installed on your site, you can get historical data on your site speed under Labs > Site Performance.
Keep in mind that the Google Page Speed tool is looking at what gets loaded when your page loads. If you have lots of separate javascript and CSS files, and large images, you will get a lower page speed even if your page appears to load fast. However, it’s a good idea to pay attention to the Google Page Speed suggestions.
For example, if your pages load pretty fast but your Google Page Speed is 60, it probably means you have a very fast web server that can overcome the inefficiency of your site. By following Google Page Speed suggestions, you can make your site even faster. Faster is ALWAYS better because your users will not have to wait for your content to load.