Free Website Speed Tools

Website speed tools measure how quickly a page loads and show what slows it down, from oversized images to heavy scripts. The free tools here compress and resize images, count what a page loads, check Core Web Vitals through Google’s PageSpeed Insights data, and test colour contrast. Three run in your browser, two fetch pages from my server.

The 2024 Web Almanac found that 43% of websites had good Core Web Vitals on mobile once INP replaced FID, down from 48% under the old FID measure, so a large share of sites still have room to improve.

How speed and images relate to SEO

Page speed matters for two reasons. People leave pages that feel slow, and Google measures real visitor experience through Core Web Vitals. Google’s own guidance on Core Web Vitals sets the good thresholds: Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) at 2.5 seconds or faster, Interaction to Next Paint (INP) at 200 milliseconds or less, and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS) at 0.1 or less, measured at the 75th percentile of page loads.

I will not tell you that fixing speed alone lifts your rankings. Speed is one signal among many, and relevance still comes first. But a slow page wastes the traffic you already earned, and on most small business sites the biggest single cause is images that are larger than they need to be. That is why I grouped image tools and speed checks together: the first set fixes the commonest cause, the second set tells you whether it worked.

Image Compressor, WebP Converter and Image Resizer

The first tool compresses images and converts them to WebP in your browser. Files never leave your device, so it is safe for client photos and unpublished artwork.

Compressor: how to use it

Add an image, choose the output format and compare the result with the original. WebP is a modern format that usually produces smaller files than JPEG or PNG at similar visual quality, and current browsers support it. Check the preview before you download. Compression is a trade: push it too far and you will see blotches around text and edges.

Compressor: what to fix

• Photographs saved straight from a phone or camera, which are often far larger than any web page needs.
• Logos and screenshots saved as photographs. Flat graphics often compress better in a different setting.
• Hero images at the top of the page. These tend to be the largest element visitors see, so they influence LCP more than anything below the fold.

Compress after resizing, not before. Squeezing a huge image is less effective than shrinking its dimensions first.

The second tool, the resizer, changes image dimensions and crops, with presets for Google Business Profile, social media and Open Graph images.

Resizer: how to use it

Pick a preset or enter your own width and height, then crop to keep the important part of the image in frame. The Open Graph preset matters because that image is what appears when someone shares your page on social platforms or messaging apps. The Google Business Profile presets save you guessing when you prepare photos for a listing.

Resizer: what to fix

The common mistake is uploading a 4000 pixel wide photo and letting the page display it at 800. The visitor downloads every extra pixel for nothing. Resize to roughly the largest size the image will actually be shown at. If your layout is responsive, make sure your site can serve smaller versions to small screens, which is a platform setting, not something the tool can do for you.

Describe each image properly once it is on the page. Alternative text helps people using screen readers and gives search engines context.

Page Size Checker

This server side tool shows a page’s HTML size and counts how many images, scripts and stylesheets it loads.

How to read the results

Enter a public URL and my server fetches it. A large HTML size can mean bloated templates or inline code. A high count of scripts and stylesheets suggests many separate requests and more work for the browser. The counts do not tell you which files are heavy or slow, only how many there are, so use them as a pointer toward what to investigate.

What to fix

• Scripts from plugins or tags you no longer use.
• Several stylesheets that could be combined or trimmed.
• Pages carrying far more images than the content needs.

Its limits

Because the server fetches the page, it sees the HTML the server returns. It does not run JavaScript, so images and scripts that are added later by code are not counted. Some sites block automated requests, in which case the check may fail even though the page loads fine in your browser. Only public pages can be checked.

PageSpeed and Core Web Vitals Checker

This tool checks LCP, INP and CLS using Google’s PageSpeed Insights data and explains the fixes in plain English.

How to read the results

Compare each metric with the thresholds above. Where Google has enough real visitor data for a URL, you will see how real users experienced the page. Where it does not, you may see only lab data, which is a single simulated test. Lab data is good for finding problems and checking fixes, but it is not the same as what your visitors experience. Check which kind of data you are looking at before you draw conclusions.

What each metric usually points to

Run it more than once. Scores vary between tests, so look for patterns rather than reacting to one number. Test your most important templates, such as the home page, a service page and a blog post, because one slow template affects every page built on it.

Colour Contrast Checker

Contrast is not a speed metric, but it belongs with the other checks that shape user experience. The tool checks text and background colours against the WCAG contrast ratios.

Enter a text colour and a background colour and read the ratio. WCAG asks for at least 4.5 to 1 for normal text and 3 to 1 for large text at Level AA. Fix failures by darkening the text or lightening the background, then test again. Light grey text on white is the classic failure, and it also tends to be the text people mean to be read, such as captions and form labels.

How the tools work, their limits and a workflow

• Browser tools: the image compressor, image resizer and colour contrast checker run on your device. Your files and colours are not uploaded.
• Server tools: the page size checker and the PageSpeed checker send the URL you enter to my server, which fetches the public page or requests Google’s data. Do not enter private or staging addresses you would not want fetched.
• Automated checks can be blocked, and they do not see content added later by JavaScript.
• Speed varies. Results depend on server load, network and device, so treat any single run as a sample.

A workflow that uses the tools together

1. Run the PageSpeed checker on a key page to find which metric fails.
2. Run the page size checker to see whether the HTML, images or scripts are the obvious load.
3. Resize oversized images, then compress and convert them to WebP.
4. Upload the new files, replace the old ones and clear any caches.
5. Test again and compare. If LCP improved but INP did not, the next job is scripts, not images.
6. Check contrast on any new colours before you publish a redesign.

Speed is only part of page quality. For the text side, try the SEO writing tools, and for describing pages to search engines, the schema markup generators. Everything is listed in the free SEO tools hub.

When a tool is not enough

Image fixes can take a page a long way, but they cannot cure slow hosting, a theme that loads a dozen scripts, or a plugin stack that fights itself. INP problems in particular usually need someone to read the code and profile how the page behaves on a real phone. If you have fixed the images and the numbers still fail, it is time for a proper review of your hosting, theme, scripts and caching. That is the work I do in my website speed optimisation services, and the case studies show how I approach projects.

Questions about website speed tools

If your pages still feel slow after these fixes, ask for a free audit on the contact page.