I had a ton of cute little buttons, showing all of the many blog directories I was a member of, several scrolling image bars showing all of the other blogs I visited and liked and even a slideshow of my favorite family pictures. I thought my blog LOOKED awesome and was a real representation of me...until, one day it took over two minutes to load the homepage and my blog literally slowed to a crawl. I called my hosting company at the time and the guy gently broke it to me that I was using WAY too many resources. This was a concept I had never once considered, which began my never-ending mission to streamline and speed up my blog. This is a job that I monitor and maneuver daily, for I want to give my readers the best possible experience I can while they're here. If I don't, I know someone else will and I want my readers to keep coming back again and again, enjoying my blog...not becoming frustrated by it.
If you are just beginning and want to really see how the changes you make affect the speed of your blog, you might want to start a spreadsheet detailing your loading speed, YSlow score, Google Page Speed, etc. I wish I would have kept these records, for it would have made things much easier in knowing which changes I made worked for my blog and which ones worked against it.
Here's a sample of a spreadsheet that might help you get started: BUILDING A FASTER BLOG SPREADSHEET SAMPLE
So, without further ado, here are the top 10 sites I recommend you bookmark when trying to optimize your blog's speed. These sites all offer something a little different and are useful in different ways, but together they are an informational powerhouse!
- YSlow - The first thing I recommend is to start using Mozilla Firefox browser IMMEDIATELY when analyzing your blog. I've found that Firefox is much better than Internet Explorer in many ways, but especially because of the ability to add specialized plugins. Follow the instructions on YSlow's download page and find out what your beginning YSlow score is.
- Google Page Speed - Another wonderful Firefox plugin that when coupled with YSlow, will give you greater insight into your blog, with plenty of suggestions on how to improve it.
- Is My Blog Working? - This is a fairly simple and direct test and will give you a broad overview to what the world is experiencing when they visit your site. It's definitely helpful for measuring how fast your page fetch speed is, whether or not you are utilizing gzip and how much savings you're getting because of it. I also love that it will automatically detect problems with your feed too.
- Redbot and Web Sniffer - These two sites are great for they will let you know whether your blog is caching correctly. (If you're not sure what caching is, don't worry. I'll explain all about it when I discuss the W3 Total Cache plugin in a future post.)
- Website Grader and Blog Grader - If you've ever been to someone's blog and noticed that little badge displayed which says what their numerical "web grade" is, then this is the site they've went to. There is a host of information, including vital stats like MOZ Rank and SEO Authority, displayed here. I used to have my badge displayed in my sidebar, until I discovered that it's a speed drainer. Now, it's on my Media Kit page.
- Web Page Test - I absolutely LOVE this site, for it gets super detailed and reveals the ugly truth about how long your blog is really taking to load. I probably utilize this site at least once per day and if I'm trying something new with my blog, I use it even more.
- Link Vendor Speed Tester - Another one of my daily favorites... This site will help you figure out which images are sucking the speed from your blog. Since most of the blog's I visit are image intensive (myself included), this is a must-see for finding out how you can streamline your blog.
- Website Speed Test - This isn't one I use that often, for the others tend to do the job just fine. But, I threw it in here to make an even ten websites. You can't have a top 9 countdown! That would just be silly. :)
Whew! These sites should definitely keep you busy and might even confuse you a little in the beginning. Stay tuned and we'll break down each of the main problems that could be stealing valuable time and readers away from your blog, and the results you're seeing here will soon begin to improve.
Until next time...have a wonderful day!
View Comments (17)
This is a really informative post. I'm not technical at all but do like to have a number of features on my blog. However, I recently had a cull and got rid of unnecessary jargon on there. I don't have any adverts just personal stuff.
CJ
Hi Crystal,
Thanks so much for stopping by and giving this post a read. I know it's sad that unfortunately our resources aren't unlimited. I really liked my blog a lot better the way it used to be. It definitely was a better reflection of me, but alas I had to sacrifice a ton of cool stuff for better functionality. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
new follower from bee friendly friday blog hop. i'd love for you to stop by my blog and follow back.
http://diaryofadevildogwife.com
Hey! I'm a new follower from Follow me Friday. Hope you will stop by my blog and say hello
feelinkindacruncy.blogspot.com
thanks for the links. testing webpagetest as i write this comment.
Great! Thanks so much for stopping by and giving this post a read. Hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Are you a Texas Aggie, by chance ?!?! ;)
The Frugal Free Gal
http://thefrugalfreegal.com
Sure am! How'd you guess? Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great weekend! :)
wow- sites i didnt know about- now to figure out what is good and what is bad- definitely need to find out about the cache issue- looking forward to that post!
thanks for this series!
I checked on 1 of the sites and sadly it says my blog is broken.. I guess need to find someone to fix it soon then WTH!
Hi there,
Okay, take this for what's it worth, but I looked at your site on http://ismyblogworking.com and I think I know how to make your blog not appear broken. You need to add
Oops...I just noticed in the comment I sent you that it took out the little bit of coding I enclosed. I'll send you my original comment via email.
Super useful post! I need to find the time to go through and check out all of these speed raters.
I stumbled you, my post is http://www.mapleleafmommy.com/2011/02/water-tank-heater-question-should-i-get.html
Thank you for the simple, informative and wasy to understand report
Thanks Rachelle...I'm so glad you found it helpful. Have a wonderful weekend! :)
Hi there Melissa.
Great post I am definitely following your tips to improve my blog speed.
Thanks!
Thanks so much Jenn! I love your blog and am happy that you found this post helpful. Have a great day! :)