Andreas Hecht April 2nd, 2016

Varvy.com: The All-in-One Website Optimization Tool

Varvy.com: The All-in-One Website Optimization Tool
From time to time, I come across true gems on my strolls through the internet. Some of these tools ease my life as a webmaster, for instance. Today's web sites need to meet plenty of requirements. They need to load fast, meet the newest Google webmaster guidelines, and also need to be optimized for search engines. Additionally, in many cases, optimization of the view on smartphones and tablets is demanded as well. Until now, many different tools were required to test websites. However, the new online tool varvy.com promises to cover all areas. It also offers many useful features, which is why I'll introduce you to this tool toady. Varvy.com: The All-in-One Website Optimization Tool

Varvy.com Website Optimization

varvy.com Varvy.com offers plenty of tools to test and optimize websites with. Immediately after accessing it, you can check if the Google webmaster guidelines have been met. The results are presented very appealingly, and they are explained thoroughly. Additionally, every single aspect of the guidelines is equipped with linked areas, behind which elaborate explainer articles are hidden. varvy.com

Why varvy.com is unique

Not only can the online tool be used to optimize a website's speed and to meet Google's guidelines, but it also communicates profound basic knowledge on the individual areas of website optimization. There's a link to an article on every area of optimization which explains what the aspect is about. Thus, Varvy is the perfect tool for beginners and advanced users. However, even professionals will find features that make the tool interesting for them as well. While it's not suited for professional optimizations, it's optimal for a first overview. You can get a quick overview of all articles on the service's Ssitemap.

The Tool's Areas

Varvy is divided into the sections SEO, Speed, Performance, Mobile, and Tools. The website tests are done based on the relevant, well-known Google tools. The tool's big advantage here is, that only one tool is needed for all the different tests.

Section SEO

In this area, the observance of the Google webmaster guidelines is tested. All important areas can be found here. After the test, you can see exactly which areas need improvement, and which areas are already optimized. However, the tool showed me an error message even though there was no error. The tool criticized a missing HTML sitemap for my website's visitors. While it does exist on my website, it's not named "Sitemap". That should be the reason why it wasn't found.

Section Pagespeed Optimization

Testing a website is done rather fast and is just as meaningful as a test done using the Google Page Speed Insights Tool. Here, the Google API is used to execute the tests. The results and the aspects that are tested are exactly the same. A test of my website as shown that Varvy and Google Page Speed both criticized the same two aspects of my sites. A CSS file that is loaded in the visible area (and speeds up the website better than the recommended Inline-CSS), and the optimization of images, precisely of one image. Both tools recommended a better compression, so that 552 Byte can be saved on this image.

Section Web Performance

In this section, no tests need to be done, but you're informed about aspects that can lead to a performance boost of your website. Many articles are just waiting to be read. Professionals can learn from this section as well. Has anyone of you ever heard of »Brotli«? It's a data compression format published by Google, which supposedly boasts significant advantages over GZIP.

Section Mobile SEO

This section provides the test on quality and speed of a website when it's displayed on a mobile device, which is already included in Google Page Speed Insights. You'll, once again, receive the same results that Google's test comes to. However, Varvy provides plenty of background information when scrolling down on the page with the test result. varvy.com

Section Tools

varvy.com Just until recently, the section Tools was accessible via the main navigation, however, it can currently only be found using the Sitemap detour. All tools still work and can be accessed from the Sitemap. The website offers the following instruments:

Conclusion

Every section shows how much effort the developer Patrick Sexton has put into this project. As a former very successful internet entrepreneur, Patrick now focuses entirely on the development of Varvy.com, which you can definitely feel when using the website and the tools. The effort put into it is tangible. The essence of fundamental tools in combination with the wealth of background knowledge are what makes this website unique. Varvy has found its way into my bookmarks. (dpe)

Andreas Hecht

Andreas Hecht is a journalist and specialist for WordPress and WordPress Security. He roams the web since its inception. He has published an ebook on WordPress Security, which you might want to take a look at.

3 comments

  1. Great review. Sounds like it’s usurped Google in the UI / UX (not difficult really) at the same time as delivering a lot of information in a clean easy to digest form aimed at all levels. Near perfect? Will definitely check this tool out. Will feedback. Thank you

  2. I agree that the Varvy site is great. The tests are very helpful, but much more than those, I have learned a lot from the posts/articles which go into details about the different things being tested.

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