How to Fix High Time to First Byte (TTFB) in WordPress

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On April 4, 2025

TTFB — Time to First Byte — is the time it takes for a user’s browser to receive the first byte of response from your server. A high TTFB can seriously hurt your page speed, Core Web Vitals, and SEO rankings. Luckily, with the right approach, you can significantly reduce it.

What Is TTFB and Why It Matters

TTFB includes three stages:

DNS lookup
Server connection
Waiting for server response

A good TTFB is under 200 ms. Anything above 500 ms usually indicates a performance issue. A slow TTFB delays everything — including LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) and the visible page load.

How to Measure TTFB

Chrome DevTools → Network tab → check first request timing
PageSpeed Insights → “Reduce initial server response time” warning
WebPageTest → Detailed TTFB graph

What Causes High TTFB in WordPress?

Slow or overloaded hosting – Shared servers with high traffic lead to delays.
No page caching – WordPress processes PHP and database queries on every request.
Heavy theme or plugin code – Too many database queries or backend logic.
Unoptimized database – Slow queries, bloated wp_options, or missing indexes.
Missing or misconfigured CDN – Without it, your site loads from a single physical server.

How to Fix High TTFB

1. Use a Faster Hosting Solution

Choose WordPress-optimized hosting with LiteSpeed, NGINX, or fast Cloud VPS. Avoid overloaded shared hosting.

2. Set Up Page Caching

Use plugins like LiteSpeed Cache, WP Rocket, or WP Fastest Cache to cache HTML pages and reduce server load.

3. Enable Server-Level Caching

If your host supports it, use LiteSpeed LSCache or NGINX fastcgi_cache — these are even faster than plugin-based caching.

4. Optimize wp_options Table

Reduce autoloaded data and clean up transients. See our guide on optimizing wp_options for details.

5. Use a CDN

Cloudflare or BunnyCDN can reduce latency by delivering content from edge servers closer to the user.

6. Delay Unnecessary Scripts

Defer analytics, chat widgets, or social buttons that don’t need to load immediately.

How to Know It’s Working

Retest using PageSpeed or WebPageTest
Look for “Initial server response time” under 200 ms
Check load time stability over several days

Need Help Diagnosing TTFB?

High TTFB can be hard to track without experience. Request a free performance audit from SpeedWP Pro — we’ll test your TTFB, analyze server logs, and help you reduce response times without breaking your site.

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