Site speed is how quickly a website responds to web requests.

Basically, it’s how long your website takes to load and it matters because it’s a signal that Google takes into consideration in it’s search ranking algorithms.

So, how do you determine what a good load time is? How do you measure and know if your site is performing well or not?

Free Tools for Measuring Site Speed:

• Page Speed – this tool started as an open-source browser extension. It will evaluate the performance of your various web pages and offer suggestions for areas of improvement.
• YSlow – is a free tool from Yahoo that will analyze your various web pages and suggest ways to improve performance based on a set of “rules for high performance web pages.”
• Page Speed Online – like the others, this one is quick and easy to use. Page Speed Online will analyze the content of your web page and then generate suggestions to make that page faster.

Why does page speed matter?

For one, it’s a signal Google factors into their search ranking algorithms. While a good page speed doesn’t exactly improve performance, a poor page speed can negatively impact your rankings. But also, good page speed can lower bounce rates and improve user experience. The faster your site loads, the more likely someone is to spend more time on your site.

So, how does your site stack up?