Testing Website Speed

Testing website speed is a common practice for web developers who want to improve the performance of the website on Google. Having a fast loading website is an important ranking factor.

The main reason for this is because website visitors are usually quite impatient and if a website takes too long to load the visitor is out and on to another website.

This is called a bounce, and the more bounce your website gets the worse it’s going to rank on search for engines like Google. Now website speed is not the end all be all when it comes to ranking, it is simply one ranking factor.

There are websites that have terrible loading scores but still manage to rank very high. One example of a website like this is enterprise.com. Their website ranks as an F in page load but dominates the search results for car rentals.

This has to do a lot with their brand recognition and the fact that they’ve been around since 1957. But if you’re trying to create a new website today and get it to rank in Google search, you better believe that speed is going to be a factor.

So how do we test to see if the website speed is good or not? There’s plenty of tools on the web but I found one of the most reliable is called webpagetest.org, this gives a six part test that ranks from A to F.

It ranks such things as Security Score, First Byte Time, Keep-alive Enabled, Compress Transfer, Compress Images, Cash Static Content and Effective Use of a CDN.

I’m not going to explain what all these different things do, just know that to rank relatively well you’ll want a high score on most of these. This is something that your web developer can help you with.

Have a question about how to get your website to rank on Google search? Wondering about how to speed your website up? Shoot me a message on my contact page!

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Written by: Jophiel Silvestrone

Jophiel Silvestrone has written 326 posts in the Tech Blog.

Jophiel grew up on a ranch in Paradise Valley, Montana near Chico Hot Springs. Working on the ranch instilled work ethic and self motivation. Filled with this drive, Jophiel started mowing the local school's yards twice a month throughout the summers, at the age of 12. He moved to Billings in 2004, where he has been deeply involved in the local business community ever since. A serial entrepreneur, Jophiel has ran multiple businesses in our local community. The first business, a janitorial and carpet cleaning company, founded in 2005, has employed over 50 locals. Moving on to the media industry, Jophiel and several partners founded Green Directory Montana in the spring of 2007. Green Directory's sustainability ranking software awarded points based on sustainable or "green" actions. These points counted towards a business's total "Green Score," which in turn ranked them against other businesses in their category and throughout the entire site. It also featured a limited edition print version distributed annually. A business acquisition allowed Jophiel to focus on new projects, and a few close business colleagues and Jophiel started Rocky Mountain Mr. & Ms. Magazine, a lifestyle publication for men and women in the Magic City. After a year and a half at the helm of RM3 Magazine, the business was purchased. He now runs a web development company SkyPoint Studios and fathers his son Jaoquin, who plays football, basketball, soccer, and is learning snowboarding from his dad. Recently, has expanded to locations in Havasu, Arizona & Vegas. SkyPoint Studios is a market leader in both Billings & Havasu and Jophiel is working on building that same level of market dominance in Vegas. Specialties: Extensive experience in online and offline business. Especially savvy at WordPress, and operate several sites, one example is the blog: skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com/tech-blog. Check out skypointwebdesignbillingsmontana.com for the latest projects from SkyPoint Studios.