Give GTMetrix another look

GTMetrix has been so helpful for me and my clients website speed. They have a new technology called LightHouse and it gives more helpful suggestions now.

What is so useful about this is that often it is confusing for people to understand the suggestions that GTMetrix used to give in the past. They had a link that explained it, but for non IT professionals it was still confusing.

This new format focus on the most important things and I think does a better job making it obvious where the problem is. What I love about it the most is that the score is more helpful and not just an abstract Google reference like it used to be.

I ran this site through it and it said it was at 98% for speed and suggested I use a CDN. I have used that in the past but when Cloudflare went down, so did my site and so it is not an automatic win anymore.

Next week I am going to run through all of its suggestions and see if it can help me with the sites that I manage. One of the best parts of being a webmaster is the fun you get in making things work better. That is rewarding feeling when you realize that each day you are improving things and making information easier for your clients to share.

Is there a downside to the new format? I don’t think so. I like that it is more compact. The other suggestions used to feel overwhelming and honestly after half of the list they were not always worth the time to do. Now people who don’t have experience can use their time more effectively.

As the group AC/DC used to say “She ran a fast website, she kept her CGI tight, she was the best darn webmaster I’ve ever seen.”