Qué es TTFB (Time to First Byte)?
Definición Rápida
El TTFB mide el tiempo desde que un navegador solicita una página hasta que recibe el primer byte de datos del servidor, sirviendo como indicador del tiempo de respuesta del servidor.
Time to First Byte (TTFB) is a performance metric that measures the duration between a user's browser sending a request and receiving the very first byte of the server's response. It captures three phases: the time to send the request, the time the server takes to process it, and the time for the first byte to travel back.
A good TTFB is under 200 milliseconds. Between 200-500ms is acceptable, and anything over 600ms indicates a performance problem. Google considers TTFB when evaluating page experience, though it's not one of the Core Web Vitals.
Several factors affect TTFB. Server processing time depends on how long it takes to run database queries, execute server-side code, and generate the response. Network latency is the physical travel time between the user and server (which a CDN can reduce). DNS resolution time is how long it takes to convert your domain name to an IP address.
Common causes of slow TTFB include overloaded or underpowered servers, unoptimized database queries, lack of server-side caching, slow third-party API calls during page generation, and no CDN (meaning all requests go to a single origin server). Each of these can be diagnosed and improved with targeted optimizations.
Por Qué es Importante
TTFB is the starting gun for your page load. Nothing else can happen until the browser receives that first byte. A slow TTFB delays everything: the HTML document, the CSS, the JavaScript, the images. It's the foundation that all other performance metrics build on.
For businesses, TTFB directly impacts user experience and conversion rates. If your server takes 2 seconds to respond before the browser can even start rendering the page, users on slower connections might wait 5+ seconds for a usable page.
Ejemplos Reales
A WordPress site with a TTFB of 1.8 seconds implemented server-side caching and reduced it to 150ms, cutting total page load time by more than half
An e-commerce platform discovered their TTFB was 900ms due to slow database queries; adding database indexes and query caching brought it down to 120ms
A media site moved their origin server from a single US location to a CDN with edge caching, reducing TTFB for European users from 800ms to 80ms
A SaaS dashboard reduced their TTFB from 1.2 seconds to 200ms by pre-computing frequently accessed data and caching the results
Términos Relacionados
Core Web Vitals
Las Core Web Vitals son tres métricas específicas definidas por Google que miden la experiencia real de los usuarios en sitios web: rendimiento de carga (LCP), interactividad (INP) y estabilidad visual (CLS).
CDN (Content Delivery Network)
Una CDN es una red de servidores distribuidos geográficamente que entrega contenido web a los usuarios desde el servidor más cercano a ellos, reduciendo los tiempos de carga.
Caching
El caching es el proceso de almacenar copias de datos o archivos en una ubicación temporal para que las solicitudes futuras puedan ser atendidas más rápidamente.
LCP (Largest Contentful Paint)
LCP mide el tiempo necesario para que el elemento de contenido visible más grande de una página — como una imagen hero o un título — se renderice completamente.
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