Top 10 Tools To Increase Website Performance

I love web development and if you love it as much as I do you want to optimize so it's perfect! You just built the most pixel perfect website / web application ever! But, you find out it isn't loading as fast as it should or your traffic isn't as high as it should be. Next you need to make sure that your site is optimized, code is valid and search engine friendly. Your visitors will thank you for it.

Here are my top 10 tools that I use for every website that I build.

  1. Nibbler Website Test - This tool has a vast amount of features including html, css, social, seo and server configuration feedback. If you use no other tool, this is the one you will get the most out of.
  2. Browser Shots - Check what your website looks like in 100s of different browser versions. We can't check every single browser version ever made, however this will check most of them for you.
  3. HTML Validator - Make sure your html has the proper format, tags and structure. A valid html website has a better chance of rendering properly across multiple platforms.
  4. CSS Validator - Make sure your CSS is valid and looking good. Valid CSS is important for multiple cross platforms.
  5. Pingdom - Log and report if your website is up and running every minute. This service does cost a little. If your uptime is critical, it's worth the cost.
  6. DNS Check - Analyze and check your DNS status. Improper DNS can affect your visitors.
  7. Page Speed Test - Analyze and test how fast your webpage is and optimize to improve performance.
  8. Link Check – Missing Pages - Scan your website for bad links or missing pages. Identify where those 404 missing pages and fix them. Either 301 direct to a new page or re-create those pages.
  9. Google Webmaster Tools - This tool has several features and will give a host of knowledge about pages indexed by google, keywords, pages with errors and more. Implement the google site map to ensure they have all pages indexed.
  10. SEO Site Checkup - Scan your site to see how you can improve your SEO performance and increase organic traffic.