Response Time

Does Server Response Time help with SEO?

Yes, your website response time is critical to your user experience and SEO Ranking.

Server response time, also known as Time to First Byte (TTFB), refers to the duration taken by a web server to respond to a request from a user’s browser or a search engine crawler. It’s a crucial aspect of website performance that significantly impacts both user experience and SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).

Server response time can also be used to refer to the page load time which will also impact the number of pages that can be indexed by the search bots.

When a user or a search engine sends a request to access a web page, the server must process the request and generate a response. The server response time denotes the time elapsed from the moment the request is made until the server starts transmitting the response data back to the user’s browser or the search engine crawler.

Server Response Time Considerations for SEO

WordPress Response Time

How to reduce the initial server reponse?

A swift server response time translates to faster web page loading for users. This enhances engagement and user satisfaction by minimizing waiting times.

Search engines, such as Google, consider server response time when evaluating search rankings. Faster server responses indicate superior website performance, positively influencing SEO and improving search rankings.

For search engine crawlers, a rapid server response time means they can crawl more pages on your website within their allocated “crawl budget.” This enhances the likelihood of more of your pages getting indexed and potentially ranked in search results.

To reduce the initial server response you should consider upgrading your website hosting, installing a CDN, theme updates, and optimisation plugins.

A faster server will always result in reduced initial server response, although it’s not always a practical solution, it should be the first consideration for reducing time to first byte.

Time to First Byte (TTFB)

Server response time, also referred to as Time To First Byte (TTFB), is an essential metric that gauges the duration between a user’s request and the initial data byte received from the web server. This parameter plays a crucial role in determining overall page load performance, which significantly influences user satisfaction and search engine rankings.

TTFB encompasses the time needed for the server to process the user’s request, generate HTML content, and send the initial data byte back to the user’s browser. Notably, it does not include the time taken to load the entire page, including images, stylesheets, and script execution.

A low TTFB is highly desirable as it signifies quick and efficient server response to user requests. A high TTFB can lead to sluggish page loads, potentially negatively impacting the user experience. Various factors can influence TTFB, such as server processing capabilities, network latency, server workload, and the complexity of the requested content.

User Experience

Sluggish server response time can severely undermine the user experience in various ways:

Extended Page Load Time: When server responses are slow, page load time increases substantially. Waiting for requested content can trigger user frustration and impatience, potentially leading them to abandon the page altogether.
Reduced User Engagement: Websites with slow-loading pages discourage user engagement. Visitors may become less inclined to interact with the site, explore its offerings, or take any desired actions, such as completing purchases or submitting forms.
High Bounce Rate: A high bounce rate occurs when users swiftly leave a site after arrival without further interaction. Sluggish server responses are a primary contributor to this phenomenon, as users are more prone to exiting if content doesn’t appear promptly.
Impact on Search Engine Rankings: Search engines, like Google, consider page load time as a ranking factor. Subpar server response times can adversely affect a website’s search engine ranking, leading to reduced organic traffic and visibility.
User Discontent: Users anticipate smooth and rapid responses from websites. Slow server responses create an unfavorable impression, decreasing user satisfaction and reducing the likelihood of return visits.
Mobile User Experience: Slow server responses are particularly detrimental on mobile devices, where network connectivity might not always be optimal. Mobile users are more sensitive to page load times, and sluggishness can cause a frustrating experience.
Competitive Disadvantage: In a competitive online environment, websites with sluggish server responses face a disadvantage against faster-loading competitors. Users are more inclined to opt for a competitor’s site over a slow one.
Conversion Rates: For e-commerce websites, slow server responses can directly impact conversion rates. Lengthy checkout processes might lead to abandoned shopping carts and lost sales.
Brand Perception: Website performance reflects on a brand or business. A slow website might convey unprofessionalism or a lack of concern for user experience.

Search Engine Ranking

Crawl Budget Optimisation

Crawl budget refers to the maximum number of pages or resources that search engine bots, commonly known as spiders or crawlers, are allowed to explore on a particular website within a specific time frame. This concept plays a significant role in search engine optimisation (SEO) as it directly impacts a website’s indexing and ranking in search results.

Search engine crawlers have finite resources and time, which limits the number of pages they can crawl during a single visit to a site. The crawl budget is a crucial factor as it determines the maximum number of pages that a search engine will crawl from a website within a given period.

Several factors influence the crawl budget, including the overall authority of the website, the quality of its content, server performance, and the frequency of updates. Websites with a higher crawl budget have better chances of having their new and updated content indexed quickly, ultimately improving their search engine rankings.

Response Time Factors

Various factors can affect server response time, including:

Hosting Quality: Opting for a reputable web hosting provider and suitable hosting package substantially influences server response times. High-quality hosting services generally offer improved server performance and faster response times.
Server Resources: The hardware specifications and available resources of the server, including CPU, RAM, and disk speed, impact how quickly it can process and respond to requests.
Website Configuration: Proper website optimization, encompassing code efficiency and database queries, can contribute to faster server response times.
Traffic Load: Higher website traffic can lead to extended server response times, particularly if the server’s resources are insufficient to handle the incoming requests.
Content Delivery Network (CDN): Employing a CDN aids in distributing website content across multiple servers globally, reducing the physical distance between the user and the server, thus enhancing response times.

Optimising server response time is imperative for delivering a positive user experience, bolstering SEO efforts, and enhancing overall website performance.

Best Response Time For SEO?

Google PageSpeed insights version 4 triggered a message if your server response time was above 200ms, more recent versions have increased this to 600ms, anything over 1800ms or 1.8 seconds is considered too long.

Although 200ms is an excellent target and will result in improved user experience, it is challenging to achieve with a dynamic web site such as WordPress; the server simply has to do work before it can respond and a faster server will perform this work quicker.

We should mention that a static site will perform better than a dynamic site and we will cover implementing static WordPress in another article.

Our recommendation is to aim for 800ms or lower average response time on important pages, either through improved hosting or page and site tuning.