So I was doing a webpage speed test to see why my site was going so slow. It made me wax nostalgically for when I was in college and you had the old 28.8K that loaded each page line by line. It was like looking at a book being written.

I was triple majoring at the time in history, political science, and international relations at UW-Madison. Since, I was constantly writing and researching for papers I had it all set up. I would research the papers online as I read the textbooks. Read three pages then get to a new page on the internet. Spend 30 seconds there, go back to reading another 3 pages. Rinse and Repeat!

My paper and textbooks were generally finished before I found the information online. That was how mind boggling slow it was in those days. I remember searches for piece of information that would take 30 minutes.

My senior year, one of my roommates was a computer science major and said we had to get the new cable internet. My entire study habits had to change that year, because of this life altering technology change.

So, what does this story from the past have to do with a webpage speed test? Very simple! My site is loading a little too slow right now. Every few months I make adjustments, so I can do my best to stay under 5 seconds (preferably 3 seconds) and keep my site optimized.

According to my webpage speed test on Google Webmaster Tools it is around 11 seconds right now. The is cry me a river slow speed today. Now I realize it sounds kind of funny to have a computer test the speed of your website when you can just pop open your site by yourself. However, remember that some browsers and computers run differently. Best to go to the source to make sure everything is running smoothly.

Webpage Speed Test From Google Webmaster Tools

 WebPage Speed Test Aftermath

So now that I know that my speed is a little slow I need to determine a course of action. Luckily, Google also provide lab for Page Speed, where they will analyze what the problems are for your site. Now I just have to fix the challenge, which will be happening in the next few days.

My recommendation is to do a webpage speed test every month or two. I have not looked at mine, since July. At that time I had a runaway speed of 20 seconds one day for no reason. I was able to do some quick fixes with WP Super Cache (I had turned it off for some updates on my site) and Improve Load Times plugins.

This time it looks like some of the individual items on my site need to be fixed, so they can load faster. Which is ok, because the faster my site runs the more people will actually stay on the site and visit other pages. Plus, Google rewards those who have fast speeds.

Therefore, do a webpage speed test today and let me know how fast your site loaded in the comment section below.