TTFB, short for Time to First Byte, measures how long it takes for a web server to respond to a browser’s request and start delivering the first piece of content. It’s a core performance metric—and while it sounds deeply technical, it directly affects how fast your website feels to your visitors (and to Google).
In simpler terms: When someone visits your site, their browser asks your server for the page. TTFB is the time between that request and the very first byte of data being received. The lower the TTFB, the faster your site starts loading.
Why TTFB matters
You can think of TTFB as the starting gun for your website’s loading process. A fast TTFB sets everything else in motion more quickly. A slow TTFB, on the other hand, delays everything—even if the rest of your site is optimized.
Why that’s important:
- First impressions: Slow responses make your site feel laggy from the start.
- Bounce rates: Users are impatient. If your site takes too long to show anything, they’ll leave.
- SEO impact: Google considers TTFB as part of its Core Web Vitals and overall page experience signals.
- Conversion rates: Faster sites convert better. Every second counts.
What causes a high TTFB?
There are several possible culprits:
- Slow hosting: Cheap or overloaded servers respond more slowly.
- Poor server configuration: Bad caching, too many redirects, or bloated PHP processes.
- Unoptimized database queries: Especially on dynamic CMSs like WordPress.
- No page caching: Without it, every request has to be reprocessed from scratch.
- Geo-distance: If your server is physically far from your users and you’re not using a CDN.
In most cases, a high TTFB is a hosting or server-side issue—not something you can fix with a better theme or a plugin alone.
How fast should TTFB be?
As a general benchmark:
- Excellent: < 200 ms
- Good: 200–500 ms
- Okay: 500–800 ms
- Too slow: > 800 ms
Keep in mind that TTFB can vary depending on location, device, and network. Tools like WebPageTest, GTmetrix, Pingdom, or Lighthouse can help you test it across scenarios.
How to reduce TTFB
- Choose a fast, reliable hosting provider
- Use page caching (server-side and plugin-level)
- Enable object caching for database-heavy sites
- Use a CDN to reduce distance-based delays
- Optimize PHP, database, and server settings
- Reduce unnecessary redirects and third-party scripts
If you’re on WordPress, solutions like LiteSpeed, Redis, or smart caching plugins can significantly lower your TTFB—especially when paired with clean code and minimal bloat.
Bottom line
TTFB may sound like a developer metric, but it has real-world business impact. It’s the difference between a site that starts loading immediately and one that leaves users staring at a blank screen. If your website feels sluggish before it even begins, TTFB is one of the first things you should check—and fix.
