GTmetrix Latest Performance Report

2. My site loads pretty fast…why should I change it?

It’s all about efficiency and optimization. Your site may be loading fast, but it could be faster if you take some of the best practices into consideration. You even might be able to reduce bandwidth and hosting costs by minimizing your footprint.

3. Now that I have my scores; What do I do now?

Start optimizing your site! GTmetrix provides explanations for each recommendation, and gives you actionable advice. The recommendations in the table you see are ordered in terms of which have the most impact on your site. Fixing items at the top of your list can have a bigger impact on your overall score.

Make sure you fully understand the recommendations before you begin though. Though many of them are applicable to your site, some are not. The recommendations are meant to be generic, best practices – you don’t need to fix everything.

Need help? GTmetrix’s developer, Gossamer Threads, can handle all of your speed optimization requirements.

Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.

4. My server code is optimized. Is this enough?

It’s a start – but the code that really needs to be optimized is the user facing code. Front end optimization (of CSS, javascript, images, HTML, etc) is what’s going to make the most impact on your users. Often we only concentrate on server side optimizations, making the code as efficient as possible there; but we forget that we can get an even bigger speed increase if we optimize the front end code as well.

5. Why are my Page Speed and YSlow scores different?

Page Speed and YSlow use different recommendations when analyzing URLs. Each service analyzes a page using a set of rules that they believe are most relevant to page speed and performance. Most of the rules overlap or are very similar to each other, but in general your scores should be comparable.

Visit our Recommendations page for a list of each service’s best practices.

6. I have a _______ type of site. Why is it asking me to do X?

The post-analysis recommendations are not always relevant to your site (EG. You do not need a CDN if you’re running a small website or blog). This is why it’s important to truly understand the recommendations and how they can affect your site. Not everything will apply to your site.

Visit our Recommendations page to learn more about each recommendation.

7. I don’t have control over X, why is it asking me to fix it?

Most sites include code for services like ads, analytics or other widgets. These bits of code may fetch javascript or CSS from other sources. Of course, since you have no control over these resources, there’s nothing you can (or need to) do.

8. Do I have to fix everything?

No, not at all! Start with the recommendations at the top. The report organizes recommendations in order of what has the most impact on your score.

Realize that 100% is not realistic, and a green score generally means your site is speed optimized. Remember that these tools are meant to be used for a wide variety of site types, and so some recommendations may not apply to your site.

9. How much of an impact will doing this have on my search engine ranking?

In general, there is no definitive answer one way or the other. Google has indicated they want a faster web, and to be able to “flip through sites” visually (like a magazine), which requires sites rendering fast and caching well. Google has also stated:

“While site speed is a new signal, it doesn’t carry as much weight as the relevance of a page.”