We’ve referenced speed testing tools throughout several posts on this blog — this one is the dedicated, step-by-step version: exactly which tools to use, exactly what to click, and exactly how to read the results, so you can actually run this test yourself rather than just knowing it exists.
Step 1: Test With Google PageSpeed Insights
Go to pagespeed.web.dev and enter your website’s homepage URL. This free tool, run directly by Google, gives you the most directly relevant results since it’s measuring the same Core Web Vitals metrics (explained in plain terms in our dedicated post) that affect both user experience and search ranking.
Once you run the test, you’ll get two separate reports: one for mobile and one for desktop. As covered in our post on the desktop-versus-mobile speed gap, always check both, since mobile performance is often meaningfully worse and is the more important score given mobile-first indexing.
Step 2: Read the Overall Score
You’ll see a score from 0 to 100, color-coded green (good), orange (needs improvement), or red (poor). This gives you a fast, at-a-glance sense of where you stand, though the more detailed breakdown below the score is where the genuinely useful information lives.
Step 3: Check the Core Web Vitals Section Specifically
Scroll to the section showing your specific Largest Contentful Paint, Interaction to Next Paint, and Cumulative Layout Shift scores (covered with specific target numbers in our page speed benchmarks post). This tells you specifically which of the three underlying issues — slow initial loading, slow responsiveness, or visual instability — is affecting your score, rather than just a single combined number.
Step 4: Review the “Opportunities” and “Diagnostics” Sections
Below the main scores, PageSpeed Insights lists specific, actionable issues it detected — often things like “properly size images,” “eliminate render-blocking resources,” or “reduce unused JavaScript.” As covered in our post on diagnosing slow load times, image-related issues are frequently the largest contributors for photography-heavy clinic sites specifically, so pay particular attention to any image-related recommendations here.
Step 5: Test Your Most Important Pages, Not Just the Homepage
Your homepage is a good starting point, but it’s worth specifically testing your busiest service pages and any page containing a before-and-after gallery (as covered in our dedicated post on that specific performance issue), since these pages can have different performance characteristics than your homepage.
Step 6: Cross-Check With a Second Tool (Optional but Useful)
Tools like GTmetrix provide a similar analysis with a slightly different presentation, and can be useful for confirming PageSpeed Insights’ findings or getting an alternative perspective on specific issues, particularly if you want a second data point before making changes.
Step 7: Check Google Search Console for Real-World Data
As covered in our post on speed and Google ranking, PageSpeed Insights tests a simulated visit, while Search Console’s Core Web Vitals report (found under the “Experience” section, if you have Search Console set up for your site) shows real performance data from actual visitors over time — a more accurate picture of what real patients are experiencing, rather than a single simulated test.
Step 8: Test on an Actual Mobile Device, Not Just a Tool
As covered in our desktop-versus-mobile speed post, running your site on your own phone, with wifi turned off, gives you a genuine felt sense of the experience on mobile data — sometimes revealing issues that automated testing tools present as numbers but don’t fully convey in terms of actual user frustration.
What to Do With Your Results
Once you have your results, prioritize based on what’s covered in our diagnosing slow load times post: image optimization typically offers the highest-impact fix for a photography-heavy clinic site, so start there if your results point to image-related issues, then work through other flagged opportunities in order of their estimated impact on your score.
A Simple Testing Routine Going Forward
Rather than testing once and forgetting about it, a simple periodic check — after any major content addition (like a new before-and-after gallery), and every few months generally — catches performance regressions before they meaningfully affect visitors or rankings, rather than discovering a slowdown only once it’s already been a problem for a while.
The Underlying Principle
Testing your site’s speed isn’t a technical task reserved for developers — with the free tools covered here, it’s something you can genuinely check yourself in a few minutes, getting specific, actionable results rather than relying on a vague sense of whether your site “feels” fast. Making this a regular, simple habit keeps performance issues from quietly accumulating unnoticed, protecting both the visitor experience and the search visibility covered throughout this blog.
Want us to run this full diagnostic for you and walk through the results together? [Book a free website audit] and we’ll handle it.
