Given the endless discussion around site performance in SEO circles recently and Google's release of the new site speed measurement feature in Google Analytics, there's no prizes for realising that site's performance is more important than ever.

And here's the list in no particular order:

• Google's Page Speed Tool

This tool sets the benchmark in finding many of your website speed problems. All issues are clearly detailed and it's scoring system allows you to assess the impact of changes quickly. It's available as browser plugins and through an version of the tool.
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• Web Page Analyzer

This handy tool calculates page size, composition, and download time. The script calculates the size of individual elements and sums up each type of web page component. Based on these page characteristics the script then offers advice on how to improve page load time. It lacks of thesizzle of newer tools, but provides a simple no nonsense insight into your websites performance.
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• Yottaa

One of the newer tools on the market, Yottaa offers a range of data points on your sites performance including page speed, its global reachability, how well optimized it is and how easily a browser can render its contents. The best part is they offer an ongoing monitoring service so you can analyse your performance over time.
Visit the tool >>

As I mentioned earlier, there's heaps of others out there which are equally impressive (e.g. Yslow just missed out on the list), but you find many of the tools offer similar data, so there's no real need to overdo it.

If you use a particular website speed and performance tool, share it below through the comments as we're always up for exploring new ones.