How to reduce server response time (TTFB) below 800 ms

Time to first byte (TTFB) is how long your server takes to start answering. Nothing can appear on screen before it, so a slow response slows every page, on every visit.

What the numbers mean

• Under 200 ms: excellent.
• 200–800 ms: fine for most sites.
• Over 800 ms: slow. The website checker marks this as a warning, and the SEO audit lists every slow page.

1. Turn on page caching

Most slow responses come from building the same page from the database on every visit. A page cache stores the finished HTML. On WordPress use a caching plugin (for example WP Super Cache, W3 Total Cache or LiteSpeed Cache on LiteSpeed servers); most managed hosts have it built in.

2. Add an object cache

If pages can't be fully cached (shops, member areas), Redis or Memcached keeps database results in memory. Ask your host whether it's available.

3. Use a CDN

A content delivery network such as Cloudflare serves cached copies from a location near the visitor, which helps most when your visitors are far from your server.

4. Remove slow plugins and code

Deactivate plugins one by one and measure again. Page builders, related-post widgets and badly written search or statistics plugins are frequent culprits.

5. Update PHP or Node.js

Newer versions are noticeably faster. Most hosting panels let you switch versions in a few clicks; test on a staging copy first.

6. Check the database

Large, unoptimised tables slow every query. Clean up old revisions, spam comments and expired transients, and make sure tables have indexes.

7. Move to better hosting

If an empty page still takes over a second, the server itself is overloaded. Shared hosting with strict resource limits is a common cause.

Measure again

Run the website checker a few times. The First response line shows the server time from our location. The full SEO audit measures it on every page it visits.