It’s no secret that website speed is a crucial performance factor, but you’re probably wondering three things:
- How do you measure your website’s speed?
- How do you improve your website’s speed?
- Does website speed affect SEO?
The answer is simple: website speed test services.
There are plenty of services out there offering website speed tests, and most of them are great. However, some tools don’t allow you to change where they load the website from, while some allow you to pick the location but don’t offer Australia as an option.
This might not be an issue for you if you use a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which means that your website is always loaded on a server close to your user’s locations. However, if you don’t have a CDN, testing website speeds from far away locations won’t give you accurate and detailed data. That’s where the three tools below stand out from the competition.
Website Speed Test by KeyCDN
KeyCDN allows you to test from Sydney, Australia. The speed test allows you to make the results public, or you can simply untick the box to keep the results private. This tool doesn’t give you optimisation tips, but it shows a waterfall of elements on your website so you can get an idea of where the loading slows down. It also shows you a preview of what the site looks like.
Check it out: https://tools.keycdn.com/speed
Pingdom Website Speed Test
Pingdom Website Speed Test gives you three location options and one of them is Melbourne, Australia. The tool also gives your site a Performance Grade, tells you the total load time, and shows you a comparison of your site vs. other tested sites. The Performance Insights section of the results is the real gold mine. It shows you the worst-performing aspects of the site, giving you a clear idea of what’s slowing down your website as well as some tips to fix it! Further down is even more valuable information on your website performance that includes a load waterfall and a breakdown of asset types.
Check it out: https://tools.pingdom.com/
WebPagetest
This is the only tool designed solely for website speed testing and not as an add-on service from a company. To be honest, it really shows. WebPagetest lets you pick a location, as well as a browser – something the other two tools don’t let you do. There’s a nationwide ‘Australia’ option, as well as a ‘Sydney’ option. There is also a raft of other options you can pick from, depending on how advanced you want the test to be.
Check it out: https://www.webpagetest.org/
Which Website Speed Testing Tool is the Best?
Our favourite by far is Pingdom’s tool simply because of the level of information you are given. However, for Canberra-based clients (or for testing sites further away from one of Pingdom’s 3 locations), the tool is better as a guide rather than a detailed idea of load times since the closest testing location is in Melbourne. We use Pingdom for optimisation tips and then we use one of the other 2 tools to get an idea of load times. WebPagetest is the best option if you are looking for more advanced functionality and conducting a speed test from Sydney rather than Melbourne.
