what is TTFB & how to Reduce it (server response time) Google pagespeed

Table of Contents

What is TTFB?

TTFB stands for time to first byte

FCP: first content full paint.

request goes to server and returns to browser it’s the time to first byte.

ideal 200ms

above 500ms worst.

most Web 300ms

time to first byte ttfb for static sites 100ms

Dynamic websites 300avg (un optimised )

TTFB= Database response time. +application server response time + web server response time.

TTFB= MySQL+php+nginx|apache

when limited memory &cpu resources ttfb or website always slows down.

TTFB+browser rending= 200ms+1.8sec= 2seconds (fast)

ideally 3 seconds.

Amp loads in 1 sec

human brain reaction time 100-200ms.

speed & earnings drop calculation

available at many sites.

10% earnings should be used for hosting,

whatever revenue loss you get due to slow speed. To fix the issue only 10% of your earnings cost upon increasing server capabilities.

if you increase 1sec speed your income may double, but costs 10% of exta income.

but optimizin only server boosts your income, there is marketing, competition, & customer need are the key.

don’t upgrade server unless you utilit 80% resources

first you need to configure the server & applications

to use full system resources.

nginx.conf mysql.conf php.ini

with docker resources automatically adjusted.

application & server Monitoring

new relic & data dog.

monitors databae like mysql ,application like php, severs like nginx apache

slow MySQL queries.(database admi ni is a big part)

php-fpm pool configuration (more threads more power)

nginx workers = auto (to utilise available cpu cores)

read performance tuning if linux, mysql, php-fpm, apache and nginx.

caching is main advantage

how caching works?

firts request go through server+php+MySQL= response time 300ms

2nd request goes through server=response time 100ms

fastcgi cache:

caches html Page

wordpress super cache plugin

W3tc page cache plugin

it’s simple to implement, but cache expiry time is the key.

opcache for php

MySQL object cache by redis, memcached

read opcache, w3tc plugin, wp super cache plugin,

Browser rendering optimization

critical css in head

js in footer

Remove render blocking js & css

page size should below 512kb but 1mb ideal

Average 3MB.

to decrease page size.

image

Js accounts most of the 70% out of 3mb.

so avoid plugins in wordpress.

TTFB | server response time l latency & location

while you are checking ttfb on Google pagespeed tool

it’s important that location of the server routing.

also cross check with webpagespeedtest.org

Gtmetrix.pingdom, and chrome devolopers tools.

reduce server response times (ttfb) wordpress plugin

Reducing ttfb can be tricky with caching plugins.

TTFB for dynamic websites like WordPress

300-500ms (300good, 400ok,500 not recommended)

TTFB for static websites like WordPress + caching

200ms (google recommended)

Is wordpress dynamic or static website or both?

when you enable pagec with wpsuper cache, w3 total cache, wp rocket.

then if it’s served cached html page then it’s static,

you ttfb almost half of regular. 400ms vs 200ms.

without caching: server(apache/nginx)>>php>>MySQL

with caching

server>>html page.

also use object cache /mysql query cache with w3tc.

reduce server response times (ttfb) cloudflare

TTFB biggest issue in cloudflare free plan.

sometimes it goes upto 2 seconds.

You are taken a country specific datacenter location in a dedicated / cloud environment.

by enabling cloudflare free plan. It’s routes request to lower priced / lower peak data center.

Ex: I maintain a website for Indian users, data center also located in india mumbai,

but cloudflare routes from Europe mostly.singapore 2nd one.

clouflare has 5+ data centers in india.but those for paid customers.

at least you have to enable argo smart routing to deliver the content from user nearest location.

10Gb bandwidth $10 . my free plan it served 40Gb bandwidth. If I enable argo I have to pay $40.

focus on goofy analytics speed timings to get avg loadtime & ttfb.

readmore about cloudflare tutorials

reduce server response times (ttfb) godaddy

GoDaddy is a shared server, if you compare with any shared server ttfb not below 200-500ms.

even if sometimes low on low traffic, midnight, peak hours your ttfb and page load times goes higher. best way is enable caching if you are using wordpress.

my case in Google cloud:

I did a test at google pagespeed insights tool. ttfb is hight 300ms, I increased cpu &ram levels 6cpu cores &12gb ram for 50 concurrent visitors. Problem: not optimized the server, mysqy, php and not enabled caching at server level && used cloudflare.

I didn’t know where it’s routing from?

You know by just typing yourdomain.com/cdh-cgi/trace

https://RaazKumar.com/cdn-cgi/trace

fl=35f648
h=raazkumar.com
ip=2409:4070:4e10:b36d:1eec:caf8:9211:e44f
ts=1597559441.758
visit_scheme=https
uag=Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 10; ASUS_I001DE) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/84.0.4147.125 Mobile Safari/537.36
colo=SIN
http=http/2
loc=IN
tls=TLSv1.3
sni=plaintext
warp=off

Colo=sin (Singapore) cloud flare uses airport codes.

free plan : origin datacenter india>> request from india>>

Routed>>india>>Singapore>>origin datacenter india.>>Singapore>>indian user request.

not clouflare not caches all requests. html pages has to serve by origin server.