tech

How to fix: Server response time (TTFB) <=800ms

Part of the Technical SEO pillar on the Site Integrity Index.

Why this matters

Time to First Byte is when the server delivers the first byte of HTML to the browser. <=800ms is Google's Good threshold; >1800ms is Poor. TTFB is the foundation of every other performance metric — a slow server negates frontend optimisations.

Background

TTFB is when the server delivers the first byte of HTML. <=800ms = Good; >1.8s = Poor. TTFB is the foundation of every other performance metric — a slow server negates every frontend optimisation.

References

web.dev/ttfb · Core Web Vitals supplementary metric

How to fix

Code snippet for each stack we cover. Pick the one matching your server / framework.

nginx

Enable proxy_cache for cacheable responses. Use `worker_processes auto` + tune `worker_connections`. HTTP/2 + keepalive.

apache

mod_cache + mod_disk_cache. Tune MPM worker config.

cloudflare

Page Rules → Cache Everything for cacheable pages. APO on the Pro plan handles WordPress edge caching.

wordpress

Object cache (Redis Object Cache plugin). Page cache (WP Rocket / W3 Total Cache). Move heavy plugins (slow DB queries, external API calls) off the critical render path.

flask

Profile slow endpoints with `werkzeug.contrib.profiler`. Cache DB queries with Flask-Caching. Move slow work to Celery background tasks.

express

Profile with `clinic.js doctor`. Use Redis for session + query caching.

rails

Rails.cache.fetch around expensive queries. New Relic / Skylight for endpoint profiling.

Verify it's working

https://pagespeed.web.dev/ TTFB metric, OR `curl -w '%{time_starttransfer}' -o /dev/null -s https://your-site/` — should be <0.8s.

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