3 free tools to test your site speed

Site loading speed is one of the most important factors in achieving our campaign goals. According to Google data, the increase in the loading time of a page, from 1 to 3 seconds, generates an increase in the probability of bounce in a 32%.

There are several factors that can cause problems with the loading of your site. They may be problems with the hosting service, due to the way the site is set up and its general weight, or due to the quality of the internet connection that the user has at the time of loading the site.

That is why I mention the following three tools that can help you improve the general load of the site, understanding that there are three important factors when optimizing this variable:

• The weight of the files that make up the site, in an ideal state, should not weigh more than 3MB.
• The charging time, as much as possible, should remain below 3 seconds.
• Loading on mobile devices. A good parameter could be that this action does not take more than 5 seconds through a 3G connection.

No.1: Google PageSpeed Insights

This tool generates a diagnosis of the website based on good practices established in the industry. Here you can find these general rules. Taking advantage of this tool could improve loading times.

No.2: Pingdom

It can be tried for free during the 14 days of trial. To use this tool you must select the location that is closest to your business and where your website is hosted. In this way, the speed with which your page is delivered between the two points will be measured. Pingdom also generates a comparison with other sites to know where you are compared to other sites tested with the same platform.

Something interesting about the tool is that it shows a breakdown of the different elements of your website and shows their size.

In the same way, several parameters that can generate delays are evaluated, such as DNS or Timeout. In case the waiting time is very high, it could be an indicator that a change of hosting is necessary.

No. 3. Google Mobile Friendly Test

The loading speed on cell phones deserves a specific tool, since a site may be loading well on desktop computers but not on cell phones. If we take into account the global trend in the increase of searches and mobile browsing, this is definitely a factor to which we must pay special attention.

This test shows a general summary of the performance of your site on a 3G connection and shows an error report that can help you improve the general indicators.

Did you try any of these tools? What was your experience like?