🔥One Second Makes a 7% Difference in Conversions🔥

If you want to convert, you want a site that loads quickly. Google says that 2 seconds is the ideal loading time, and studies show that one additional second of loading time can decrease conversions by up to 7%. Yikes! 

While it’s not the only factor, site speed is an important factor of both SEO rankings and conversions. Here are the common ways to test site speed, and what they tell you about your site. 

Psst: Want to optimize your site for speed? Schedule a free consultation with Fyresite to discuss your options for a site speed audit. 

This Impacts Your Site Speed

Impacts to site speed can be split into two categories: what you have control over and what you don’t have control over. We like to focus on what you can change (we’re optimistic that way). 

While there are some things that you have no control over, like infrastructure, here is a list of factors inside your control that are impacting your speed.

• Fonts

• Apps/Plug-ins

• Themes

• Code

• Images and Videos

Tools for Site Speed Tests

Like everything digital, there are multiple options for testing your site speed. We’re breaking down some of the most popular ones, how to use them, and what they tell you. 

Google Lighthouse

Shopify merchants, this one is for you. Shopify uses the Google Lighthouse metrics to gauge your site speed performance. 

Google Lighthouse is an open source tool that you can download from the Chrome dev tools store. 

When you turn on Google Lighthouse for PageSpeed Insights, you enter a URL and run an audit.

This will give you information on both mobile and desktop performance. The information tells you how quickly or slowly different elements are loading, as well as insights into what could be improved. 

GTMetrix

GTMetrix is a Fyresite favorite. 

Using a free or pro plan, you just insert your URL, change the analysis options if you wish, and review the results.

It gives you a grade and performance report. You can read the summary and performance breakdowns for further insights into your site performance.

Fyresite Speed Audit

Troubleshooting tools are great for checking and maintaining where your site speed is and any issues with it. 

If you’ve just changed your site up, or it’s been a while since you’ve done any work on your site speed, we recommend a complete Fyresite Speed Audit. 

A Fyresite Speed Audit includes

• Page loading times

• Loading structure 

  • Example: Whether or not you’re using lazy loading 

• Media optimization

  • Images and videos

• Mobile responsiveness 

• Code optimization 

• Server/hosting optimizations

• Special recommendations based on your specific needs

Want to move quickly? Schedule your set up call with Fyresite today.