There are a million things to learn when setting up a word press website. Let me say first that while setting up my website, it was so frustrating that I almost gave up. Even for a computer-literate, detail-oriented person, it can be one of the most challenging jobs you’ve ever set out to complete.
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Of course there are simpler instant website services, but WordPress offers literally thousands of plugins to adapt your site to whatever you want and need. Personally, I like having many options and choices to tailor my website to exactly what I need it to do.
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But back to the focus of this post. Everything else aside, once you set up your website, the number one thing you need is to have is a fast-loading website.
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Readers today want every site to load fast, very fast. If a site does not open within 2 seconds, the majority of people will leave. We live in a society that wants immediate results so a snap of the fingers is about all the time anyone wants to wait to get the information they are seeking.
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How do you know how long it takes for your website to open? Fortunately, there is a new program called Bitcatcha that will test your site quickly and simply.
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I love the way Bitcatcha’s designer describes how your website works with the server.
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He explains that the server is like the engine of your car. It starts it and gets it going, right? Your website with all it’s plugins, content, photos, caching, and widgets are like all the other parts of a car – the tires, the brakes, the transmission and so on. You can work on the efficiency of those other parts of your car until you are blue in the face, but if your engine is not working properly, they do not matter.
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So it is with your website. If you want to rank higher in Google searches, your site must open within 2 seconds. 2 seconds!
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So go ahead and test your site. Google says a response time of 200 ms is good.
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Test how fast your site opens here: http://www.bitcatcha.com/.
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You will see that Bitcatcha tests the site opening speed in different cities around the world. As long as your numbers are under 200 ms in your part of the world, you don’t need to worry. Your audience is primarily in one country or continent.
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It’s a good idea to test your site speed on Bitcatcha more than once. Speed does fluctuate depending on how busy a server is.
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I use GoDaddy as my server and it tested at D+ on the first test and B on the second test. Ideally you would want a B, however in my part of the world – North America – the numbers were well under 200 ms, so I am satisfied that my site is loading fast enough to rank high in Google searches for my audience in my part of the world. A higher ranking means more visitors.
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Here are what my results looked like:
www.travellittleknownplaces.com
Host: MCI
This server responds faster than 64% of the Alexa top 10,000 global sites 
Response Times
| US (W) | US (E) | London | Singapore | Sao Paulo |
|
11 ms
|
57 ms
|
168 ms
|
207 ms
|
167 ms
|
| Pune | Sydney | Japan |
|
260 ms
|
226 ms
|
217 ms
|
| Performance |
B |
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Bitcatcha itself is fast. It opens fast and in about 12 seconds, I had the results of the test.
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What can you do if your site is slow? The first thing to do is contact your host provider (server) and ask them to move the server closer to your location and audience.
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If after several tests at different times of the day, you are consistently getting a low score, you should consider changing web hosting services. Sometimes the free or cheapest hosting service is not the best one.
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To find alternative web hosting services, Bitcatcha provides excellent information here: Web Hosting options.
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Hopefully, Bitcatcha is a useful tool for you to test the speed of your host provider in opening your website for viewer requests. Every millisecond counts!
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Let me know how it works for you.
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* This is a sponsored review however, as always, the views and opinions expressed are ours alone.