It is obvious for an Internet user to throw a query and wait for the response. The ping time when the first response (even as small as 1byte) loads into the browser is termed as “time to first byte” (TTFB).
We, the Humans hate waiting be it standing in a ticket queue or waiting for the website response. And that is the reason why TTFB is vital and important for search engine developers and website creators.
The myth that is spreading like wildfire is “ TTFB or a page load speed is one of the major factors behind ranking”
John Mueller cleared the air saying
AFAIK we currently don’t use TTFB for anything in search/ranking. It can be a good proxy for user-facing speed, but like other metrics, don’t blindly focus on it
Website owners should better concentrate on giving the best user experience and store performance. TTFB is much hyped for SEO and it is important because, if the sites load faster, the potential user will be able to read the content. If not instant pictures, the users should be able to at least read the content.
Offer something to your reader while your backend performs the rest of the task. TTFB helps you understand which code runs when and in how much time.
Learn more on how you can improve TTFB.
#1. Know your Barriers:
“Try to aim a speed of less than 200 ms for loading” Google excerpts.
This speed definitely helps you to get a higher rank and you will be penalized if you go above this value.
Another surprising fact is, if your loading speed is 600 ms or more, you fail Google’s TTBF test.
Here are other factors contributing to a lower speed:
- Configuration and resources of the web server;
- The resolve speed;
- Network conjecture;
- Code loading time;
- Backend caching solutions.
TTFB for mobile users is also important as much as TTFB is for a browser. Magento 2 profiler allows you to break down every page into small blocks and analyze.
Time and count are the two important values the profiler report shows. Time is obviously the response time and count means the number of times that particular request has been called before it created the output.
The benefit of page break down allows you to study which pages on the site take a longer time. You can also use Profiler SQL and slice down the pages and understand the factors dragging you down.
#2. Migration to another suitable database engine:
The search engine store database should be efficient enough to handle Magento queries. Though Magento uses MySQL, there are various other options which can really be considered. Alternatives are Maria DB Aria search engine or Percona XtraDB search engine. They use a smarter and faster approach to handle parallel queries.
Recommendations for an alternate database are available, but you need to choose the one that best works for you and also you can install Elasticsearch to speed up the search.
#3. Set up the server according to the traffic needs:
You know that the traffic on the store is not going to remain constant throughout. One needs to keep the space for handling random spikes and traffic generated because of an event.
You can keep the setup to 80% of its capacity and rest 20 will serve when needed to handle the traffic.
A Magento speed optimization service provider will help you in doing this store set up but it will be your responsibility after that to optimize it as per the requirement.
Your store size, average traffic, transactions per day and more also influence the system requirement.
Set up the CPU and RAM to create a balanced web server profile. You need to keep 20–25% free space to handle traffic spikes.
#4. Make caching better:
Caching improves website snappiness. It constantly migrates the used data from SSD or a hard drive to RAM.
Ever wondered the read data speed can go up to 20 GB/s!
Yes. It is possible now with DRAM modules. HDDs can read up to 200 MB/sec and SSDs up to 3200 MB/sec.
You can upgrade the Magento store with Redis and Varnish. Though challenging to configure, Varnish offers TTFB values in 100–200 ms.
#5. Remove the unwanted extensions:
Extensions use your store resources. If they are not configured properly, they will slow down the TTFB.
So do not overlook the thought of removing the unused extensions from the store, clean it up and speed up the performance.
It’s All For Better Performance:
Magento speed optimization is one of the important tasks you need to perform to speed up the store performance. Hope the tips shared are helpful to you to reduce your site’s TTFB value. The benefits that you reap will give you a lot of satisfaction.
Originally posted at RuhaniRabin.com
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