New Google Webmaster Tools Lab Feature – Site Performance

Yesterday, Google launched a new Webmaster Tools Labs feature called Site Performance.

It’s a very neat feature and seems to run through the same algorithm as Google’s Page Speed Firefox Plugin:

This feature also gives you some examples of pages on your site and how much smaller your pages can become, with just some simple changes:

And it also advises you to download the Page Speed Plugin!

Some recommendations to decrease page load speed:

• Enable GZIP compression
  - Search for GZip Compression in Google for more information on this
  - For WordPress, you can use the plugin – WP Super Cache which compresses your site
• Combine External JavaScript Files
• Minimise DNS Lookup
  i.e. decrease the amount of external content that is loaded automatically on your pages
• Combine CSS files into one
• Optimise Images for the web
• Minimise the size of the site Architecture
  e.g. Use minimum HTML code
• Host your site on a dedicated server
• e.t.c.!!

This is further proof that a site’s loading time is going to become an important factor for ranking higher in the Google Search Engine. But it’s nothing to worry about just yet. Probably over the next year, many changes will be seen from Google, however, it’s best to start now when optimising your site’s performance.

Google Fading Homepage:

Aside from the main topic of this post, Google have also rolled out their neat Fading homepage to all users:

I’ve noticed this on Google.com, however other people have also noticed this on Google.co.uk!

Ahmed Bhula
Natural SEO Programmer