Want to improve your WordPress site load time?
One way is to optimize your web page to increase the site speed. But even though you have done all the front-end fixes to increase website speed, you are not getting the desired result.
Maybe because the problem is not with your User Interface instead, it lies with the web server on which your site is hosted.
Is it Possible? Of course. Your site’s time to first byte (TTFB) can be the speed killer.
If you are not familiar with this term, then don’t worry. I will be discussing what TTFB is, how it impacts your website speed, how to measure it, and tips to decrease the TTFB on your WordPress website in this article.
So, let’s begin…
What is TTFB?
TTFB stands for Time to First Byte. It is the amount of time it takes for a page to initiate the loading process. If you land on a web page and get a white screen for a few seconds, that is Time to First Byte (TTFB).
TTFB is the time it takes for a browser to receive its first byte of data from the server. The longer it takes to get that information, the longer it takes to show your web page.
How to Lower and Optimize TTFB?
1. Use a Fast Web Host
- Choosing the right host is essential for the TTFB of your webpage. It’s highly recommended to use a good WordPress hosting provider to help improve TTFB.
- The location of your host server also matters. So, you must choose the site of a server that is close to your targeted traffic.
- For example, if the majority of your traffic comes from the United States, it would make sense to host your site in the United States, not India.
- Another factor is the scalability. Your hosting server must be scalable if you’re expecting high traffic to your site to improve its TTFB.
2. Keep your WordPress, Plugins, and Themes Up to date
- Updating WordPress theme and plugins can help in reducing TTFB as WordPress keep on adding performance optimizations to its updates.
- Sometimes, they may have optimized the queries that runs by their code to the database, or made updates that can affect the efficiency of the PHP code.
- Delete unwanted plugins or themes from your WordPress back-end.
- Always check the functionality and quality of a plugin before activating it on your site.
- An excellent example of this is- Broken Link Checker Plugin. The function of this plugin is to run in the background and checks for broken link. This results in a slow WordPress admin and higher TTFB.
3. Lower the number of Queries
- The number of Queries can also have a direct impact on your site’s TTFB.
- You can also use the Query Monitor Plugin to find any query bottlenecks.
- New Relic tool can also help you in identifying database queries that are taking too much time to execute or process data, so you can find which plugins, themes or settings hurt your site’s page speed.
4. Enable Caching
- Enable Caching on your WordPress site to optimize your TTFB.
- It does so by reducing server processing time.
5. Use a Good Quality CDN
- As discussed in previous points, Network latency can be a potential reason behind high Time to First Byte.
- Using right CDN(Content Delivery Network) can help serve your static content such as images and scripts, faster to website visitors via a network of servers located all over the world.
- Hence, if your server is geographically located in the US, for example, and your users are mostly in India, they will get your site’s content from a server location that’s nearer to them.
- This help in decreasing the network latency between your website’s server and your users.
6. Choose Managed WordPress Hosting
- Standard hosting packages don’t offer premium DNS but managed WordPress hosts do.
- Managed WordPress Hosting provider will make sure that DNS queries are answered with low latency by using a global network of DNS servers.
- Enable DNS prefetching on your site to inform the web browser to perform DNS lookups in the background while the visitor is browsing.
