Optimizing TTFB Time To First Byte

Optimizing TTFB Time To First Byte is optimizing how fast the server initially responds when called upon by a new user. Or as Wiki puts it “TTFB measures the duration from the user or client making an HTTP request to the first byte of the page being received by the client’s browser.”

A slow TTFB is almost always caused by a slow or overloaded server trying to process and run all the calculations to deliver your page. It’s like trying to use a computer with not enough resources to process everything you’re wanting it to do. Think of it like this, what would your browsing experience be like on a computer with 20 other people on it at the same time? It’s probably not going to be very good and neither is your server response time on most shared hosts.

Will Performance Optimization Help?

Caching, using a CDN and other performance optimizations can help but when you’re on shared hosting with a bunch of other websites there’s only so much it will improve. Not only is your site starved for resources but so are all the other sites languishing on that shared hosting account. Maybe if you could performance optimize all of the other accounts on the shared hosting space you’re on you might start to make a difference.

How To Optimize TTFB

The easiest way to optimize TTFB is to have your site hosted on a fast server with plenty of RAM and CPU. You can pay more for the cream of the crop plans at these shared hosts but it’s usually costly.

Managed WordPress Hosting – most of the companies that specialize in fast Managed WordPress hosting like WPEngine and Flywheel usually have a fast TTFB.

VPS Hosting – we can set your site up on its own scalable VPS server with resources on demand and manage it for you. We host our site on a 2GB RAM, 2 CPU Ubuntu vps server at Digital Ocean and it’s very cheap for us because we manage it ourselves. Probably not more than $20 a month including a storage bucket for backups. Our performance score speaks for itself. https://gtmetrix.com/reports/wpteks.com/GbBPhUdj/

WordPress VPS Server Management

We’ve been hosting our own WordPress sites for forever now and TTFB is one of the big reasons. Other benefits are scalable resources and your site isn’t on the same IP address as 200 other sites. If you need VPS server setup and management for your business or organization contact us.