Google has announced a web-based tool that helps marketers assess their sites' speed performance and makes suggestions to boost page speed.

Google has announced a web-based tool that helps marketers assess their sites' speed performance and makes suggestions to boost page speed. This tool might be especially useful for marketers looking to boost their SEO, as Matt Cutts says site speed should be a top search engine optimization priority.

The Page Speed Online tool allows marketers to enter their site URLs. Then, it analyzes web content and makes suggestions for improvement. “Reducing page load times can reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates,” says Google.

Brafton.com The feature doesn't score how fast a site is, per se. Rather, it assesses how much room a site has for improvement. The lower the score, the more improvements can be made. We tested Brafton.com, and Google rated us a page speed of 83 out of 100. (For reference, Mashable received a score of 65.) Mashable.com

Mobile performance can also be tested by the Page Speed online tool. This is a nice feature for marketers looking to increase their mobile site performances (which should be a consideration for a number of businesses, as the smartphone market is supposed to grow by 50 percent this year).

Overall, marketers can't ignore the push from Google to make their sites faster for the traditional and mobile web. Cutts told marketers site speed should be one of their top three considerations for SEO, and the company recently released Page Speed for Chrome, enabling webmasters to make their sites faster for Google's browser.

Katherine Griwert is Brafton's Marketing Director. She's practiced content marketing, SEO and social marketing for over five years, and her enthusiasm for new media has even deeper roots. Katherine holds a degree in American Studies from Boston College, and her writing is featured in a number of web publications.