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Pingdom: Take a Snapshot of Your Real Estate Website Performance

By
Industry Observer

Been to Pingdom lately?

Yes, Pindgom, not the Magic Kingdom.

it is another one of those nifty little tools we all need in our real estate website toolbag - because you can use it to catch performance problems and nip them in the bud.

Take a quick second and open that site in another tab of your browser, then go to the "Tools" section and run a performance test on your real estate website.

It will show you elements of the page you test (usually your home page, for starters) that are loading slowly. Sometimes it is a big image you didn't know was so big, or maybe calls to an external site from a recently added plugin.

If you don't have time to address the problems now, just take a screen shot and save it for later.

And, if you take a screen shot now, then one in a few months, and another a few months after that, you'll start to get a good idea of how your main pages are performing (or not).

Here is a little snippet of the results of Pingdom performance testing on FindRealAustin.com over time:

pingdom web performance

You can see that on May 20th, I ran the performance test and saw there was a problem. I cut down some images, and elmiinated some other slow-loading page elements, and got the load time down from 30 seconds to under 8. I still think it loads too slow, but 8 is better than 30!

Checks yours out - you'll be glad you did.

Tammie White, Broker
Franklin Homes Realty LLC - Franklin, TN
Franklin TN Homes for Sale

So many tools in are arsenal to help us do a better job. Thanks, I'll check this out.

Sep 24, 2011 04:57 PM
Janet Jones
Just Your Style Interiors, LLC - Kihei, HI
Home Staging, Interior Redesign Kihei, Maui, Hawaii

Hi Alison--thank you for sharing this.  I am off to Pingdom right now to run a test on my website. 

Sep 24, 2011 05:02 PM
Sharon Alters
Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty - 904-673-2308 - Fleming Island, FL
Realtor - Homes for Sale Fleming Island FL

Thanks for writing about this, Alison. Slow load time is a killer to a website. Visitors won't hang around if it takes long at all.

Sharon

 

Sep 24, 2011 05:07 PM
Christine Hooks
Pino Agency - Pennsville, NJ
Celebrating 25 Years in Real Estate!

Hi, Alison

Your post has made me very curious!  What's that saying?  "We don't know what we don't know"

Sep 24, 2011 05:31 PM
Steve Stenros
Poway,La Jolla,Del Mar,Mira Mesa,Carlsbad,Escondido,Temecula - San Diego, CA
CREIA MCI, ICC, ACI Home Inspector,San Diego

 Hi Alison! I have never heard of Pingdom. Certain pages of my site load too slow, so it will really help me out!

Sep 24, 2011 05:33 PM
Christine Donovan
Donovan Blatt Realty - Costa Mesa, CA
Broker/Attorney 714-319-9751 DRE01267479 - Costa M

Alison - I'm waiting for my login email so that I can find out more about my website.

Sep 24, 2011 05:43 PM
Lori Cain
Own Tulsa - Tulsa, OK
Midtown Tulsa Real Estate Top Producer

Alison, my page has not been properly loading for 4 days now - I'm off to Pingdom to see if I can identify the problem. Thank you for taking time to share your sage advise and congrats on your gold star!!

Sep 24, 2011 05:56 PM
Robert Hammerstein -
Christie's International Real Estate - Hillsdale, NJ
Bergen County NJ Real Estate

Alison - Cool tip. I love finding cool tools like this. Thanks so much for sharing this one with us all..Now off to check out my website speeds....

Sep 24, 2011 06:11 PM
Gita Bantwal
RE/MAX Centre Realtors - Warwick, PA
REALTOR,ABR,CRS,SRES,GRI - Bucks County & Philadel

Alison, Thanks for sharing the tip. I will check it out soon. I have bookmarked this post.

Sep 24, 2011 11:16 PM
Mike Cooper, Broker VA,WV
Cornerstone Business Group Inc - Winchester, VA
Your Neighborhood Real Estate Sales Pro

Thanks for the tips, Allison.  I really appreciate the advice so many AR members so freely share.  It makes us all better at our jobs.  Have a great Sunday!!

Sep 25, 2011 12:33 AM
Nancy Pav
Century 21 Redwood Realty - Ashburn, VA
Nancy Pav, Your "GottaHave" Realtor

That's great information.  I'm impatient so if it takes too long to download, I move on.....this modern world doesn't help my add tendencies!

Sep 25, 2011 12:59 AM
FN LN
Toronto, ON

Hi Allison - I am not familiar with Pingdom and will need to check it out.  Thanks.

Sep 25, 2011 01:00 AM
Deb Brooks
Brooks Prime Properties Wichita Falls Texas - Wichita Falls, TX

Alison! That is just terrific. I'm off to try this baby! Thanks so much.

Deb

Sep 25, 2011 01:10 AM
Rebecca Melancon
RAM Arts Photography - Lake Charles, LA

I'll be bookmarking this!  Thank you for the great tip! :)

Sep 25, 2011 02:55 AM
Melissa Zavala
Broadpoint Properties - Escondido, CA
Broker, Escondido Real Estate, San Diego County

Very interesting. I've never done that. Thanks for sharing. Maybe I will give it a try.

Sep 25, 2011 03:01 AM
Silvia Dukes PA, Broker Associate, CRS, CIPS, SRES
Tropic Shores Realty - Ich spreche Deutsch! - Spring Hill, FL
Florida Waterfront and Country Club Living

Alison, that truly is a very useful tool.  Thanks for sharing, I didn't know you could do that.  It will definitely help in finding those weak spots that slow us down!

Sep 25, 2011 03:53 AM
Eric Michael
Remerica Integrity, Realtors®, Northville, MI - Livonia, MI
Metro Detroit Real Estate Professional 734.564.1519

Pingdom, eh? Never heard of it. But I want to thank you for writing about it. I'll definately check it out.

Sep 25, 2011 12:01 PM
Eric Michael
Remerica Integrity, Realtors®, Northville, MI - Livonia, MI
Metro Detroit Real Estate Professional 734.564.1519

I just checked out Pingdom.com and I didn't realize it was a pay site. The strange thing was the hours that they're open. This is copied right from the site... Business hours 3 am-11:30 am EST (Mon-Fri).

Sep 25, 2011 12:04 PM
Allen 2222
Austin, TX

Hi Eric - they offer free tools, too - look at the tabs up on the right.  I don't use the pay tools, just the free ones.

Sep 25, 2011 01:49 PM
Robert Vegas Bob Swetz
Las Vegas, NV

Hello Alison and this is very interesting ... "Congrats on the feature from THE GODS!

VB ;o)

Sep 25, 2011 07:00 PM