What is GTMetrix?
GTMetrix is a tool that analyzes the page speed and performance. It generates scores for our pages and offers Pagespeed and WiSlow. It is a free tool that we have found to be used to get detailed reports about site performance. It creates scores for the pages and also provides recommendations to fix them. It allows us to run accurate analytics from the WordPress dashboard.
It also allows us to schedule reports on the daily, weekly or monthly basis. It receives alerts about the status of the site from a Word Press admin. Firstly, we have to register for a free GTMetrix account. Our free account is limited to some number of requests per day.
You can use their web-based version only by visiting the GTMetrix website. We can add GTMetrix bookmarks to the Firefox, Chrome, Safari or Internet Explorer browser for those who do not want to use the plugin.
We can see that how can GTMetrix help improve the performance of our WordPress site?
In GTMatrix one of the page speed scores of the KPI is provided as a percentage and is also classified from A to F according to performance. It is an open-sourced Google page speed library. Google has made several changes to its algorithm and has not updated the open-source version.
You can see two different grades in the same site?90% A from Google Page Speed, and 87% B from YSlow. If the YSlow score is low, it means that the system is not so smart. It uses the actual browsers when conducting browser testing, where the PSI uses emulated browsers.
The tool is essential for those who want to optimize their sites. We can do this by GTMetrix to get a Google page speed score instead of downloading the YSlow extension or Google Webmaster Tools.
YSlow Troubleshooting
In the YSlow tab, we have a breakdown of more than 18 common pitfalls that take longer than the page required to load. YSlow summarizes the components of the page and considers more server-related improvements rather than the on-page content.
Performance Tracking
The feature of GTMetrix is the ability to view historical statistics of your website. Scheduled tracking is set up to run daily, weekly, and monthly to ensure regular monitoring of our website’s performance.
Tracking is visualized with interactive graphs and divided into three main areas: Page Timing, Page Size and Request Counts and the Page Speed and Wislow Score also.
For example, a website redesign, a product launch or any blog post-publication.
International Testing
GTMetrix offers users the ability to test their website’s performance on 28 different servers in 7 different locations across the world. It allows us to test a global Internet connection latency, useful when we are a global brand.
Waterfall or Page Load Video Playback
GTMetrix enables the performance of the website in a waterfall format. The waterfall provides us a comprehensive list of assets used for page load, source of asset and loading time of that specific asset.
Features of GTMatrix
GTMetrix has an option to make the website straight forward and easy. Sign up to access additional features to run the site faster.
1. Get a summary of the key performance indicator.
GTMetrix’s report page sum ups the page performance based on key indicators of page speed.
2. Analyze the page with Google PageSpeed and Yahoo!
- It will check the page load time, total page size, and requests.
- It also sees the performance compared to the average of many sites analyzed on GTMetrix.
3. Track performance with graph monitoring
Keep track of page performance with scheduled monitoring and visualize it with the help of interactive graphs. When any page performs poorly, set an alert to notify you.
We can monitor pages and perform daily, weekly or monthly tests to ensure the performance.
4. Imagine the Performance with the Three Graphs Available
Page load time, page size and request count and PageSpeed and YSlow scores.
- Mention the areas of interest of the graph.
- It set alerts with multiple things based on PageSpeed / YSlow score, page load time, total page size, etc.
- Test your page from some fields
- Analyze the site’s page-load from 28 servers in 7 different countries of the world.
Mumbai, India
Hong Kong, China
London, UK
Vancouver, Canada
Sydney, Australia
Dallas, USA
Sao Paulo, Brazil
5. Analyze the Page on Android device
GTMetrix passes the URL by an Android device to get real-world performance data on our page load.
- It edits the user-agent string or adds a custom DNS for developing the environment.
