How to improve Time to First Byte? Page Load Speed
-
I am working with a ecommerce site that is having major issues with their load speed. The ttfb is...wait for it...7911 ms.
I am not even sure where to start with this issue. If you have any recommendations, it would be appreciated.
Is it the clients servers that are slow? They have went through multiple redesigns and have some code that could probably be deleted but I don't think it would make it that slow.
-
Hi Ian
These are all good suggestions. Accidentally (SSL excluded) these are all covered by modern CDNs, which do much more than just proxy.-
Memory vs. disk caching: Memory is faster
CDNs will cache from memory by providing free/low-cost access to very large pool of resource, which most website owners couldn't utilize otherwise. (each proxy location will have ~10 high-powered servers that allocate memory for caching)
-
Server configuration: Is your database on the same server as your web server? That's a problem, if true.
This is a core CDN capability. The cached web content is served from proxy while database complies in the background and serves the rest of the materials.
-
Database caching: Is your e-commerce system using it? The first hit on the database is a huge hit on performance.
This is a great suggestion and - unlike other points - this is not a default CDN feature. However, this problem can be solved by intelligent caching heuristic. What I mean is that by monitoring resource usage over large pool of visitors an intelligent CDN system can identify dynamically generated objects which are not often changed, yet still un-cached due to their dynamic "origin".
Pinpointing such objects and caching them in the way that ensures personalization and freshness will reduce the impact of database processing. For example, typical e-commerce site and will dynamically generate the product list from DB when in fact most products specifics (the image, the text, the pricing, etc) will not change over the product life-cycle. For all states and purposes these are static resources, yet they are being generated dynamically, for the lack of the better option...
If you CDN can identify such instances and move in to cache these parameters, you will benefit from 30-50% improvement, on top of the usual 30-40% CDN factor.
What I`m describing here is not future-tech but a patent-pending algorithms which are already used by the industry. You can find out more here:http://www.incapsula.com/the-incapsula-blog/item/414-advanced-caching-dynamic-through-learning
-
-
True TTFB is improved by changes to your basic server configuration, not a CDN. A CDN will improve delivery of static and cached files, but may not impact TTFB the way you need it to.
My gut tells me you need to look at:
- Database caching: Is your e-commerce system using it? The first hit on the database is a huge hit on performance.
- Memory vs. disk caching: Memory is faster
- SSL versus non-SSL for non-secure pages. SSL will slow performance and should only be used where security is an issue, like during checkout or on login pages.
- Server configuration: Is your database on the same server as your web server? That's a problem, if true.
-
Generally speaking, the best answer is to use a CDN.
CNDs proxy technology, which was designed to minimize "physical" distances between the site's content and browsers, directly influences TTFB. Being an in-house SEO for a CDN company I get a lot of questions about this from our support and clients. I have to admit, until recent Moz post, I wasn't aware of full implications of TTFB and considered it to be one of few page load speed related metrics. (http://moz.com/blog/how-website-speed-actually-impacts-search-ranking)This post really helped me get a better grasp on things. Interestingly enough, few month ago one of our clients Guest Posted in our blog about speed improvement gained by our free plan. Among other things, he mentioned 70% improvement in TTFB (grade going from F to A)
(http://www.incapsula.com/the-incapsula-blog/item/718-what-incapsula-free-did-for-my-site)At the time I didn't give it much attention. Because, like many others, I was focusing on overall load speeds....
I can't help but feel that this was a missed opportunity. This post could be even better with the added SEO angle...
If anyone here is interested in giving this a try and guest posting about it, I`ll be happy to provide all resources needed on our end. -
I guess by just looking at the IP, it's in Atlanta. I changed the settings on the page load tools to various places across the US so this shouldn't be a factor should it?
-
I thoroughly enjoyed your response Harald. I never would have considered switching from Amazon S3 to Amazon Cloud Space. The improved performance you experienced is amazing.
-
Hi Lhawk, First of all I advice you to look at below link for proper understanding of the Time to First Byte.
Time to first byte (TTFB)
I hope that above content helps you to understand the TTFB.
Now its time to reduce the TTFB which is most important for a web page because it overall reduces the loading time & helps to load page faster & overall website performance is increased.
For more details see the 12 steps to faster web pages.
I hope tat your query had been solved.
editor's note: source for this answer at http://www.creativedevelopment.com.au/web-design/reducing-time-to-first-byte-ttfb/
-
Where are the servers relative to your access point?
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
We changed our domain, I used the move tool in Google Search Console and I am having our site redirected and go daddy, and now I spoke with someone who suggest we do a 301 redirect for all pages on our site and I’m not sure that’s the correct move.
We just changed our domain name after 15 years. when I bought the new domain name I called Go Daddy and they instructed me to contact my google G sweet admin account and change all of our emails over which I did and then I went into Shopify who is my host and changed my primary domain there and then I went back to Go Daddy and had my old website forwarded to my new site. since then there has been nothing but problems with Google. my product feed from my merchant center account has been suspended three or four times now, I tried to rename and move all of my Google accounts from my old domain to my new one, but I am not an SEO person... after making the changes I have started google chats with analytics department with the merchant center with Google as they all keep saying that it looks fine but I’m not convinced because the product feed keeps getting disapproved. So I posted an ad for help and the Guy I spoke with suggested I do a 301 redirect for every single page on my old site, But I’m concerned that might confuse things further? I’ve already started the move in Google Search console And in Shopify I added the old domain back into the domains section and am having it redirectEd that way too... I guess I’m just looking to know which way I should proceed, any and all advice is warmly welcome thank you in advance Maureen
Conversion Rate Optimization | | TooFast130 -
Do the clickable images on pages are bad that they will increase bounce rate and distract users?
Hi Moz community, I'm trying to get some helpful answers on this. We are planning to employ clickable images on our website pages which opens in new tab if users click on them. This is to make sure that they can see the large screenshots of our product. I wonder will this increase the bounce rate and drop the rankings. Please share your experience and guidance on this. Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | vtmoz0 -
Best Day of Week & Best Time of Day for B+B Email
For business to business email, should we avoid sending on Mondays and Fridays? The nature of the service is commercial real estate brokerage for office space in New York City. We are mailing to corporate decision makers in various industries (technology, finance, law). Should we avoid mailing during certain times of day? Or is there a best time of day to send the email. Thanks,
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Kingalan1
Alan1 -
Time to purchase vs Time Lag for business cycle data
Hi All, Using just GA is it possible to get accurate information about buying cycle duration - i.e. length of time from first interaction to purchase? Time to purchase isn't what I'm looking for as it does not include direct visits. Time lag seems off as it suggests that the majority of conversions happen on day 0 (as does time to purchase). I know that any conversions outside of the time window default to 0 but I find it hard to believe that a clothing retailer has a similar buying cycle to a furniture store. Of course I could be wrong here, I'm making a big assumption. Neither report feels very robust to use for estimating split testing duration requirements. I know that there are other methods available, by comparing raw clickstream / cookie data but I do not have this data available, nor do I have the time to get it. Any info / advice would be great. Thanks
Conversion Rate Optimization | | datarat0 -
Sales pages or one site?
New client in the pensions market and they want to launch a new product. There are They have asked for a site build but my question is Is there a benefit to writing unique copy for this one product on each micro site/sales page and focus on a particular keyword, with an email capture for lead generation and also a link back to the main site. Buy domains with targeted keywords in them : www.workplacepensions.co.uk www.auto-opt-in-pensions.co.uk etc? Thoughts please as it will change my proposal 😉
Conversion Rate Optimization | | Agentmorris0 -
Page URL - Hyphens or Underscores?
What's better for SEO and why? (any references would be greatly appreciated) For the purpose of a URL of a page is it better to use: Hyphens Underscores Would hyphens or underscores be better for Google Adwords?
Conversion Rate Optimization | | HMCOE0 -
Proper Landing Pages for PPC ads
One of our sites is for a local Promotional Products company that focuses on local big businesses to set up accounts with. We are trying to grow our customer base with this site through use of a PPC campaign, but are unsure of where to send them. We were thinking about a page with content about what we do and our contact information, or putting together videos with this information to send them to. Does anyone have any advice for a killer landing page that not only is good for getting conversions for promotional products through PPC, but also could get us organic traffic? Thanks in advance for the help!
Conversion Rate Optimization | | ClaytonKendall0 -
Landing Page Conversion
Hi, I'm having a few issues with my landing page conversion. I have followed several guides found on this site (especially the unbounce.com ones) but what'ever I try my landing page CRO doesn't seem to increase. the landing page in question is http://www.drivingtestnow.co.uk/find-driving-test-cancellations. I'm getting traffic to my landing page solely through PPC traffic from Google. My stats are rough as follows: Arrive at landing page - 100% (obviously)
Conversion Rate Optimization | | perfectweb
Click through to buy now page - 15-20%
Actually complete the buy now process - 1% Conversion from organic traffic landing directly on the homepage at http://www.drivingtestnow.co.uk is having a conversion rate of about 5%. It seems odd to me that my highly targeted ad campaign and landing page are convertign so badly compared to the less atrgeted organic search traffic and homepage. Have you got any ideas why this might be occurring and also any tips on how I can improve the conversion rate for my product? Gary...0