Google Provides Tool for Speeding Up Web Pages

Last month Google Page Speed, which can show webmasters how to increase the speed of pages on their sites. It's actually a Firefox/Firebug add-on that can be used for the evaluation of web page performance and provide suggestions for improvement.

Page Speed looks at things like:

- Did you compress your images?

- Did you set proper caching headers?

- Did you write efficient Javascript?

- Etc.

The tool carries out tests on your site's server configuration and front-end code. "The tests rate your site against a set of best practices proven to enhance web page performance,"
The following clip shows you how Page Speed works:

Google says you should use Page Speed if you want to make your site faster, keep Internet users engaged with your site, reduce your bandwidth and hosting costs, and improve the web. Best practices for Page Speed performance can be found