A Complete Guide On Magento TTFB Optimization

A Complete Guide On Magento TTFB Optimization

A robust and open-source e-commerce platform with a flexible architecture, Magento is an excellent solution for a broad range of merchants. However, Magento Development can be challenging to get right. One of the most common performance issues with Magento is that it takes a lot of time to load your products list page on the front end, known as page load time. TTFB measures how long in seconds your browser requests its first byte of the product page assets from the server after successfully ordering the URL. 

In this blog post, we’ll share a guide on Magento TTFB Optimization. So, you can optimize your Magento website for faster page loading times by implementing TTFB optimization techniques that decrease the loading time for the home pages of your most popular products/services.

What Is TTFB?

TTFB is the short form of Time To First Byte, which refers to the time it takes for a web browser to receive the server’s first byte of data. The time it takes for your web browser (and therefore the visitor) to receive this first byte of data from your website is dependent on many factors, such as:

 

• The web server you are using.

 

• The type of browser, app, or operating system your visitor is using

 

• The speed of the browser and network connection used by the visitor

 

• The location where the visitor is accessing your website

 

• The amount of data the visitor is requesting from that server

Well, since this TTFB value depends on the factors mentioned above, it is impossible to estimate accurately how many milliseconds your website will take to load. However, there are methods you can use to get a good approximation of the time it might take for your website to load for your visitor.

How To Measure TTFB?

If you want to know how long it takes for your website to load in your web browser, then there are a few ways to measure this.

 

• The first option is to use Google’s Pagespeed Insights tool, which measures your website’s overall loading time and will provide tips on decreasing your TTFB value.

 

• The second way would be to use a third-party tool to measure the time it takes for your site to load. This is very beneficial if you want to create an audit page or measure the performance of certain web pages or images on your website that render very slowly. 

 

• And thirdly, if you have access to a computer with a network monitoring tool such as Fiddler or Chrome DevTools, you can use them to get an even more accurate image of how long it takes for your website to load in various web browsers.

What Slows Down TTFB On Magento?

In the Magento e-commerce platform, several factors can affect TTFB on your website.

• Absence Of Backend Caching: 

In the absence of backend caching, Magento retrieves all page data from the server every time a visitor requests a page. However, when caching is enabled, Magento retrieves only the information that has changed on your website.

• Unoptimized Code: 

Unoptimized Magento code can make a great deal of difference in how the website performs. More often than not, Magento developers tend to write unoptimized code, which can cause the slower performance of the site.

• Unoptimized Web Server:

Magento is built on PHP, which needs a web server to interpret the code and convert it into something the browser can understand. Using a cheaper hosting service that uses an HTTP server instead of an HTTP(S) server will impact your website’s loading time.

• Unoptimized Database:

In Magento, a database holds all of the product and customer data. A poorly designed or outdated database will result in a slow response time for your website, as the database is likely to be slow because there are too many records that need to be processed.

• Degrading Connection:

Suppose the connection between your website and the visitor’s computer needs to serve up the best quality. In that case, you’re running into Magento performance issues where a degrading connection can happen on several factors.

How To Optimize TTFB And Reduce Server Response Time On Magento?

There are various ways to optimize your website for TTFB, and if you want to increase your page loading speed, then a certified Magento developer should look at implementing all the following 4 steps for fast TTFB:

 

1. PHP Optimization:

 

Increase your page loading speed by optimizing the PHP code of your Magento store. This involves taking care of several PHP-related factors to have the most optimized and fast websites.

 

• To make PHP code run faster and reduce response time and multiple operations, rethink slow PHP code chunks.

 

• To speed up the website’s response, turn off any modules that are not currently in use.

 

• Use PHP modules that might slow down your platform, such as Xdebug Profiler, with caution.

 

• Upgrade PHP to the most recent version and optimize it for speed.

 

2. Web Server Optimization:

 

Optimizing your web server is very much like optimizing PHP. The only difference is that it only deals with the HTTP response. There are several ways to speed up the way your server responds to boost your Magento store sales, including:

 

• Declare a cache-control header so your server does not retrieve the same data repeatedly.

 

• Enable Gzip compression for your server, which retrieves text, images, and other resource types faster by reducing the number of bits needed to be downloaded to access.

 

• Keep your web server up to date with security patches. This might not necessarily speed up page loading time, but it will ensure that you’re protected from any malicious attacks on your website.

 

• Switch web servers if you’re using an HTTP server, as it generally takes longer to process requests than an HTTP(S) server.

 

3. MySQL Optimization:

 

Ensuring that your MySQL databases are the most optimized is vital to ensuring a fast and efficient website. You can do several things to improve web server response time:

 

• Write queries with indexes instead of scanning all data from scratch, which might result in an enormous overhead when performing SQL operations.

 

• Use an external query cache to make your most common queries faster and more efficient.

 

• Use stored procedures instead of ordinary MySQL queries where possible.

 

• Keep your databases updated with the latest releases and security patches.

 

4. Server-Side Caching:

 

You can reduce response time even further by implementing server-side caching on your website, which makes it possible for visitors to access cached data even when the web server is unavailable or offline. Some of the benefits of implementing server-side caching include the following:

 

• Reduce bandwidth usage and save money on bandwidth bills because less data must be transferred across the internet.

 

• Increase scalability because it’s possible to replace a server that is not performing well with one that is performing better.

 

• Make your website less prone to DDoS attacks since the cached data can be obtained from another machine in the case of an attack.

 

• Minimize downtime by keeping your URLs up to date so that cached data can still be accessed if the web server goes offline.

Conclusion:

For several years, people have been hearing about the importance of page loading speed. It has an impact on how users interact with your website and whether or not they will return at a future date. Although there are several ways to optimize your website for TTFB, such as optimizing code and the web server itself, it is best to choose a Magento hosting service that is optimized for performance and takes care of any PHP compatibility issues might be slowing down your website.