Time to First Byte
SEOAlso: TTFB · Server Response Time
Quick definition
Time to First Byte (TTFB) is the time between a browser requesting a web page and receiving the first byte of the server's response. It measures server processing, network latency and redirect delays, before any actual content has arrived on screen.
How it varies across Australia
Australian sites hosted overseas typically show higher TTFB than sites hosted locally, because the physical distance the request travels adds latency before the server even starts processing. The gap is often the single largest hosting-related fix available to Australian businesses.
Compare site performance across Australian industries →What it actually means
Picture ringing a doorbell. Time to First Byte is how long you stand there before anyone answers, before the door even opens. It has nothing to do with how nice the house looks once you're inside. It is purely the wait.
Technically, TTFB covers three things bundled together. Domain Name System (DNS) lookup time, the connection and redirect handshake, and server processing time. A slow database query, an unoptimised content management system, or a server sitting on the other side of the world all show up as a slower TTFB.
Most teams chase page speed by compressing images and trimming JavaScript. Those matter, but if TTFB is high, none of that work starts until the server has finished answering. A page with a two-second TTFB is already behind before the browser renders a single pixel. That is why TTFB sits upstream of Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), one of the three Core Web Vitals, and why fixing hosting and server response often moves more metrics than fixing frontend code.
TTFB is the doorbell delay. Nothing else on the page can start until this one finishes.
How to calculate it
TTFB = Time from request sent to first byte of response received
Worked example. A browser sends a request at the 0 millisecond mark. DNS lookup takes 40 milliseconds, the connection handshake takes 60 milliseconds, and the server takes 500 milliseconds to process the request and start sending data. Total TTFB = 600 milliseconds. That is considered a good score, sitting comfortably under the 800 millisecond threshold.
The Australian context
Distance matters more than most Australian businesses realise. A server in Virginia serving a customer in Melbourne has to send data across the Pacific twice, once for the request and once for the response. That round trip alone can add several hundred milliseconds before any processing even begins.
Hosting or caching content within Australia, using a content delivery network with an Australian edge location, is often the single biggest TTFB improvement available without touching a line of code.
Where people get this wrong
Related terms
Common questions
What is a good TTFB score?
Under 800 milliseconds is considered good. Between 800 milliseconds and 1.8 seconds needs improvement. Anything over 1.8 seconds is considered poor and likely dragging down your Core Web Vitals loading metric alongside it.
Does TTFB affect SEO rankings?
Not directly as its own ranking factor, but it feeds heavily into Largest Contentful Paint, which is one of the three Core Web Vitals Google does use. A slow TTFB makes it almost impossible to pass the loading speed threshold.
How do I fix a slow TTFB?
Start with hosting location relative to your audience, then look at server processing time, database query efficiency and whether a content delivery network is caching content close to visitors. Redirect chains before the page loads also add unnecessary delay.
Is TTFB the same as page load time?
No. TTFB only measures the delay before the first byte arrives. Page load time includes everything after that, downloading images, running scripts, rendering content. TTFB is the first slice of a much longer timeline.
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About New Rebellion
New Rebellion is a marketing intelligence consultancy. We build tools, score Australian businesses on how their marketing actually performs, and publish Debrief every day. This dictionary is part of how we work in the open.
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