GT Metrix: The Best Website Audit Tool
Speed is an important factor for a website. It is one of the factors in Google’s ranking algorithm. If the website loads quickly then it will have more viewers as compared to ones that take more time to load. If you made a website then make sure it loads quickly. Many factors affect the speed of the website.
It is not easy to track all the factors and manage the website speed. That’s why SEO tools are made that help to enhance the website site by optimizing all the factors. Many tools are available in the market that optimizes the overall website speed and GT Metrix is one of them.
GT Metrix is developed by GT.net. It uses the combination of YSlow and PageSpeed Insights to generate recommendations and scores to generate precise results. GT Metrix is helpful in SEO and assigns grades to the Website from F to A. The reports of GT Metrix are divided into 5 different sections:
- Waterfall Breakdown
- PageSpeed
- YSlow
- History
- Video
If your website has a good PageSpeed score then your website is completely optimized and it takes a few seconds to load completely. You might be wondering? Why you should select GT Metrix to optimize your website? This is a genuine question as there are many speed optimization tools in the market. But we are here to answer you.
In this article, we will discuss the main reasons to use GT Metrix over other tools. So let’s dive in.
Reasons Why GT Metrix is Best for Website Audit
Following are the amazing features of GT Metrix that make it better than other tools. So have a look at them.
1. Page Speed KPI
GT Metrix gives quick access to key performance indicators. After the website analysis, the user is provided with the Fully Loaded Time, to make sure the user can see the load time of a website. It also provides the Total Page Size so that users can measure the full size of the web page in MB.
Page speed score is one of the KPIs in GT Metrix that is provided as a percentage and graded from A to F. Furthermore, it provides a comprehensive list of more than 25 matrices that affect webpage speed. Each metric has a grade so that users can see how well each metric is performing.
It also provides information about the images on a webpage. GT Metrix recommends the right size to compress the image so that website can load quickly. Furthermore, each metric has a priority from low to high. So that critical actions should be prioritized.
2. YSlow Troubleshooting
Under the YSlow troubleshooting, you will see the details of more than 18 common pitfalls that cause web pages to take a longer time to load. Both YSLow and page speed scores provide similar stats. However, the page speed score aims to provide an analysis of the existing setup and how a user can optimize it.
On the other hand, YSlow focuses on an assessment of problems and how well a website is doing to avoid them. It also summarises the main components of the web page and considers more server-related improvements instead of on-page content. The major recommendations of YSlow include the use of CDN so that website gets the content from the nearest available server.
3. Performance Tracking
This is the best feature of GT Metrix as it allows users to see historical statistics of the website. The history of the website gets updated every time you run an analysis of it. You can also update the history at the scheduled times to get periodic updates on the website’s performance.
It is easy to set the scheduled tracking on a monthly, weekly, and daily basis for the continual monitoring of the performance of the website. In addition, one-off speed tests of GT Metrix are worth mentioning. You can test your website multiple times and compare the results to see how well your website performs after optimization.
Furthermore, GT Metrix has Interactive graphs to visualize the tracking and these graphs have three main areas: Page Timings, Page Sizes & request counts, and Page speed & YSlow scores. You can also scan the website of your competitor to see who is performing well.
Final Words
If you are looking for the right tool to optimize the website’s speed then GT Metrix is the right solution. It provides a detailed analysis of all the metrics with grading. This grading allows users to prioritize the main issues. In this way, users can optimize the website in a short time and see better results.
