There are various factors that can influence a user’s first impression of your site, from how fast your pages load to how well they are able to navigate your content. Therefore, it’s essential to make sure that your site delivers a smooth, speedy experience. Unfortunately, this is often easier said than done.
This is why we recommend that you conduct a website performance check. Doing so can help give you a better idea of the kind of experience your site currently offers and what steps you can take to enhance it.
In this post, we’ll discuss the importance of website performance optimization. Then we’ll provide a list of three key tips you can use to perform these checkups. Let’s get started!
The importance of conducting website performance optimization
When you first build a website, you likely take careful measures to ensure that it has clean code and updated plugins and themes, and that it is running as it should. Unfortunately, over time things tend to get a bit neglected and run down.
The more you overlook site maintenance, the more likely it is that a small issue can eventually turn into a much larger problem. When too many minor issues start building up, it can take a toll on the speed of your site. This can negatively impact both the User Experience (UX) and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) of your website.
On the other hand, consistently checking in on the performance of your site can help keep it in excellent shape. It also makes it easier to spot errors or make necessary updates without having to take your site offline.
This is why monitoring, maintenance, and optimization are essential aspects of running a successful WordPress site. The good news is that keeping an eye on your website(s) is a relatively simple process when you know which tools to use.
How to conduct a website performance check on your WordPress site (3 key tips)
Now that we’ve covered the importance of checking your website’s performance, it’s time to look at how to do it. Below are three key tips you can use to conduct a website performance check on your WordPress site.
1. Use a performance test tool to get a benchmark of your site
There are a handful of helpful website performance test tools out there that you can use to measure your site speed. These can help give you a benchmark of your site so you can gauge its current performance level. Then you’ll have something to use as a baseline for future performance checks and optimization initiatives.
Some of the most popular performance tool options include:
In addition to being mostly free, they’re also quite easy to use. For example, to use Pingdom, you can simply enter your URL, then click on the Start Test button:
Once it’s done analyzing your site, it will load the test results on the same screen. Here, you will find a performance letter grade as well as some important site metrics like load time:
This article was written by Will Morris and originally published on ManageWP.