Some Useful Web Tools

The web is a huge and diverse universe. There are billions of webpages and many more created each day. How to make your page stand out and accessible? There are a few free tools available to help.

- Apr. 2018

How fast your web server responds to a request can mean the difference between success and failure. People today are busy and they are impatient. When a website takes too long to load, they will simply move on to something else. The one reason Google is so successful is the fact it’s home page is simple and fast loading. There is just one dialog box where you type in your search term.

Here is a tool that will analyze your webpage and determine some metrics. Any score below a B score needs attention. It is called Webpagetest.

When you enter your URL, it takes a few seconds to process and i will return a result page similar to the following. This is the result for my HubPages home page. As you can see, it is very well rated. Compare it to the results for the CCNYcampus page.

From the two screen shots, you can see the difference in the ratings. The F rating on image compression is a definite problem area.

This can be easily corrected by adjusting the compressed JPEG images and reducing the resolution and quality setting. In most cases, a lower setting will not be visible on the display and at the same time save space and download speed.

Another key metric is the load time. This is the time for the page to load on your browser. In the Hubpage example, it took 7.7 seconds compared to the CCNYcampus that took 82 seconds. That is totally unacceptable. Most users would abort after 10 seconds.

This require a server upgrade to speed up the performance.

A simple test can identify most problems with a webpage design. Sometimes, the fix is simple and sometimes require a revamp of the system.