Google provide a free tool to measure this – Google Pagespeed Insights.
This tool allows anyone to measure a websites load time, and it offers improvements if required.
One of Google’s main aims is to provide quality results to its users. For some time now (since 2010), the speed of your website is one of the many signals Google uses to determine how high up Google results you should be placed. This is because a website’s speed affects users. Website users are happiest if a page loads quickly. If a page loads slowly, some users may leave the site – to them, a slow website is of a lower quality then faster websites.
Also, when users visits a website from Google, and then leaves it quickly (perhaps due to it being slow to load, or not offering the service or product they are looking for) Google can see these “bounces” – the “bounce rate” is another signal to Google about the quality of a website.
As such, Google Pagespeed Insights is a valuable tool for us at Insynch, and for many other web designers and SEO’s (Search Engine Optimizers) throughout the UK.
Does Having a Fast Website Guarantee it Will Rank Highly in Google?
Unfortunately not! Site speed is just one factor that affects how well ranked a website is. There are many other factors involved, such as mobile useability (read our article about mobile useability and Google rankings here), the quality of content on the website, the bounce rate, the amount of links the website has from others, to name just a few.
How do I use Google Pagespeed?
Simply visit Pagespeed Insights. The results of the test can give you an idea if your current website is performing as it should, speed wise.
How do I Speed Up my Website?
The results of the Google Pagespeed test can be used by competent web developers to, where appropriate, improve the speed of your website.
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
If you would like an indepth examination of your website, including Google Pagespeed, Google Mobile Useability, search engine optimisation, broken link report, and a general report on useability – take a look at our Professional Website Critique.
photo credit: Tortoise eating daisies via photopin (license) photo credit: The Need for Speed, Severn Valley, Gloucestershire via photopin (license)