Every single Web Developer knows that building a website is actually half of the job. Once you are done with the coding part, you should focus on other important issues. Generally it includes adding content, updating your site with newer technologies and optimize it to make sure your site performs at optimal level.
Today in this post, I will focus on four different free web application that can help you to optimize your site. These applications are exclusively focused on web optimization, following their guidelines will ultimately help your website not only to load faster but also to perform at it's best based on the available resources. In other words these applications can test your site against various cutting edge technologies and can suggest possible ways to improve your sites performance. So, let's get started.
GTmetrix: This is probably one of the best website speed testing tool available out there in online which is absolutely free. This is also my personal favorite application. I initially tested this site which scored around 78 percent (out of 100) on "Page Speed Grade". It also generated a report which I was able to download in PDF format. I followed most of their instructions and was able to improve my grade to 95 percent. What a great jump isn't it? Personally I noticed the speed differences. I also requested one of my friend to check the speed. As usual, he also noticed the improvements. The best thing about GTmetrix is that it not only finds what needs to be done to improve your site speed but also explains how to do it. So, if you are really serious to speed up your site, you should read "Recommendations" sections of their site. Trust me, they are extremely helpful. Thank you GTmetrix.
YSlow: Even though this is not an Web application rather visiting this website would give you the option to download extensions or addons for your favorite Web Browsers. You can use this plugin to test out the speed of your site. Don't worry, it supports most of the popular web browser. Once the test is over, you would get the grade for your site with recommendations. You can follow the instructions to improve your site's grade. YSlow is pretty strict when it comes to grading, so if you can get an "A" most probably your site would rank above 90% on any other site speed testing tool. Take this plugin seriously.
Pingdom Speed Test: Yet another great website speed testing tool. Pingdom is quite popular already and lots of people uses Pingdom to test out their website. Like some other tools it also provides pretty extensive information about the site that is being tested. The best thing about this tool is that it keeps track of your site performance. So, if you are testing your site today and perform another test tomorrow, you would be able to see it from the "History" tab. This is great if you keep improving your site, you can actually the progress history.
Google PageSpeed: Not my best choice but I still think it is quite impressive. Especially, if you are thinking of optimizing your site for mobile devices, you should give it a shot. Google has very rich helpful articles on different topics. Studying them would definitely help you to get better ideas on how to improve your website speed. This is also crucial as Google has it own scale to rate sites based on their performance. You really should take their suggestions seriously if you are focusing on SEO. I am pretty sure you would learn lot more from here than anywhere else.
There are actually quite a few other websites available in online which I think you can study if you got enough time. However, if your site can rank well on these sites, I am pretty sure your site would do better on other sites as well. Last but not least, improving your site's speed is a continuous process that needs to performed every now an then. As you keep adding contents (videos, images, articles etc.) you need to have a good grasp over many different issue to get the most out of your site along with improving its speed.
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