Google had made it clear that page loading time is a key factor in ranking web pages. Organic traffic is dependent on SERP positions. So the higher you rank, the better will be your blog traffic.
There are different ways to optimize wordpress website speed for better ranking to getting conversions, sales and sign-ups. The average page load times depend on various factors like number of JS, CSS, HTMl resources included in it.
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How Page Loading Time is Tested
The best way to measure how fast a page loads can be done using the Page Speed metric. This can be interpreted in “page load time” (the time taken to fully display content on a page” or “time to first byte” (time taken to receive the first byte information from the server).
Tools used to test Page Loading Time
Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool can be used to measure this parameter. It will test any web page for mobile and desktop version. If you get a high score or green color, it indicates that your page is loading blazing fast.
GTMetrix and Pingdom Tools are other two services which run your website through different servers and spit out the time taken to load a page.
Each tool has its own way of reporting its results. For example, GTMetrix gives page loading time when tested from Canada server. Pingdom Tools has more options to test from USA, Europe etc.
What does Google say on PageSpeed
If a page takes more than 3 seconds to load, visitor is more likely to leave the site.
Quicker the web page speed, better rankings in Google and more traffic. If you can decrease the site loading time to below 3 secs, there is good benefit in ROI and organic traffic.
PageSpeed Ninja vs SG Optimizer – Web Page Load Efficiency Test
In this post, we are going to see two WordPress cache plugins which can reduce the page loading time to less than 1 sec.
To test the efficiency of these plugin we have taken two websites.
- SG Optimizer cache plugin was used initially. Then the plugin was deactivated.
- Then, both the site pages tested with no cache plugin.
- PageSpeed Ninja plugin was then installed and activated.
This will show whether the plugin has improved page loading time or not.
SiteGround Page Cache plugin (SG Optimizer) was used in the first case. No ads. The second website had Google Ads on both AMP and Desktop version pages.
These two sites are with very few pages. As a result, the page load times were very less initially.
Overview of PageSpeed Testing Tools
These Page Load Testing tools give different test results for each iteration. Twice these tests are repeated. It gives a better accuracy of page speed results.
- Vancouver, Canada server is used for GTMetrix test study. The following browser and software were used – Chrome (Desktop) 62.0.3202.94, PageSpeed 1.15-gt1.2, YSlow 3.1.8.
- Pingdom Tests were done using United Kingdom, London server.
- In Google PageSpeed Insights tests, mobile score is based on /amp/ pages.
ThinkMinds.co.uk
Active Plugins: Accelerated Mobile Pages, Akismet Anti-Spam, Classic Editor, Lightweight Subscribe To Comments, Contextual Related Posts, Cookie Notice, Easy Table of Contents, EWWW Image Optimizer, Inline Related Posts, kk Star Ratings, Link Juice Keeper, PageSpeed Ninja, Redirection, Schema, TablePress, Thin Out Revisions, Wordfence Security, Yoast SEO, WP Mail SMTP
Thesis Version: 2.9.1
Skin Name: Effectus
Skin Version: 1.2.3
WordPress Version: 5.2.2
Conclusion
1. The Mobile PageSpeed Score is the highest when using SG Optimizer plugin.
2. PageSpeed Ninja plugin has a negative effect on Mobile PageSpeed Score, compared to without using any cache plugin.
3. Both the pages load in less than 2 secs in GTMetrix test study.
4. The GTMetrix test shows that without using any cache plugin, the page loading time is best.
5. Using PageSpeed Ninja plugin has reduced the number of resource requests to the least in GTMetrix test results.
6. Pingdom test results show that both the pages load in less than 1 second.
7. Using PageSpeed Ninja plugin loads both the pages in least amount of time.
8. Testing the /amp/ pages in GTMetrix have given “A” score with page loading times less than 2 secs.
9. Pingdom test results for /amp/ pages give a 100 grade score with loading time less than 1 sec.
10. The speed index for /amp/ pages in PageSpeed Insights tool test shows that speed index is 6.0 secs and is in red zone.
11. The time to interactive, first contentful paint, first meaningful paint, first cpu idle time were more than 3 secs for /amp/ pages.
12. Compared to mobile /amp/ pages, the desktop version loaded quickly giving green score to all the relevant page loading parameters.
BuyWindowsAntivirus.com
— Plugins —
0: Accelerated Mobile Pages v0.9.97.63 https://www.ampforwp.com/
1: Akismet Anti-Spam v4.1.2 https://www.automattic.com/wordpress-plugins/
2: Classic Editor v1.5 https://www.github.com/WordPress/classic-editor/
3: Contact Form 7 v5.1.3 https://www.ideasilo.wordpress.com/
4: kk Star Ratings v2.6.4 https://www.bhittani.com
5: PageSpeed Ninja v0.9.38 https://www.wordpress.org/support/users/pagespeed/
6: Schema v1.7.5 https://www.zebida.com
7: Wordfence Security v7.3.4 https://www.wordfence.com/
8: Yoast SEO v11.6 https://www.yoa.st/1uk
9: WP-PageNavi v2.93 https://www.lesterchan.net
— Theme —
Name: Viral by MyThemeShop
Version: 1.0.9
Author Url: https://www.mythemeshop.com/
Is Child Theme: No
— Theme Settings —
Lazy Load: No
Async Javascript: Yes
Optimize WC: No
Lightbox: No
Conclusion
1. The Mobile PageSpeed score was the least when using SG Optimizer plugin.
2. In the GTMetrix test results for desktop pages, page loading time was higher when not using any cache plugin or using SG Optimizer plugin.
3. PageSpeed Ninja plugin gives the best PageSpeed Insights scores when used on both mobile (/amp/) and desktop version pages.
4. The page loading times were around 2 seconds for desktop version pages in GTMetrix test results using PageSpeed Ninja plugin.
5. Pingdom test results show that page loading time is below 1 sec when not using any cache plugin or using PageSpeed Ninja plugin.
6. The fully loaded time was less than 1.5 secs for mobile AMP pages in the GTMetrix test results using PageSpeed Ninja plugin.
7. The load time was less than 500ms for AMP pages in Pingdom test results using PageSpeed Ninja plugin.
8. Using SG Optimizer plugin show better desktop score in PageSpeed Insights test than not using any cache plugin.
My Final Thoughts …
Both the sites have very few web pages.
The number and type of plugins were little different in both the sites. The second site was using Google Ads.
JavaScript Code is more on the second site.
PageSpeed Ninja plugin has reduced the fully page loading time to below 2 seconds.
The number of requests also drastically came down when using PageSpeed Ninja plugin.
Compared to SG Optimizer plugin, the test results in all the 3 tools show better score and less page loading time, when using PageSpeed Ninja plugin.
Also to use SG Optimizer plugin, you need to have use SiteGround hosting for your WordPress sites. Since these two sites are almost bone structure pages with little JS, CSS, HTML code, the efficiency of PageSpeed Ninja plugin could not be fully tested.
Which is the best WordPress Cache plugin of PageSpeed Ninja and SG Optimizer?
More plugins and JS code will show a better conclusive result.
One definite conclusion is that page loading time has decreased to below 2 seconds for all the 4 pages tested using PageSpeed Ninja plugin for both AMP and Desktop pages.
Nice comparison of PageSpeed Ninja and SG Optimizer plugins in the category of cache plugin.
Arguments and explaining the whole thing concerning was excellent.