By Shad Super in Questions —

What Techniques Can I Use to Reduce the Initial Server Response Time (TTFB) and Improve Core Web Vitals Scores?

Summary

Reducing initial server response time and improving Core Web Vitals scores can be achieved by implementing various optimal web development techniques. These include enhancing server response time, improving routing efficiency, optimizing critical rendering paths, and utilizing caching mechanisms, among other strategies. These practices enhance page-load speed and subsequently boost Core Web Vitals metrics such as Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Enhance Server Response Time

Server Hardware Upgrade

Upgrading server hardware could accelerate server response time, as better hardware can process requests faster and handle more traffic concurrently. It includes upgrading CPU, RAM, or storage type to SSDs [How to Reduce Server Response Time, 2021].

Content Delivery Network (CDN)

Implementing a CDN can expedite the delivery of resources as it caches and serves the site’s static assets from network nodes that are located nearest to the users [The Fastest Cache, 2022].

Database Optimization

Optimizing database queries by creating appropriate indexes, minimizing data redundancy, and purging extraneous data can help reduce server response times [How Should I Optimize My MySQL Database? 2018].

Improve Routing Efficiency

HTTP/2 or HTTP/3

Using latest versions of HTTP like HTTP/2 or HTTP/3 can improve TTFB. They provide significant improvements over HTTP/1.1 such as multiplexed streams, server push, and header compression [Introduction to HTTP/2, 2022].

Optimize Critical Rendering Path

Minify and Compress Files

Conducting file minification and compression of HTML, CSS, and JS helps reduce the amount of data that needs to be transferred, positively influencing server response time [Optimize Encoding and Transfer, 2022].

Defer JavaScript

By deferring JavaScript, the browser can initially load and display useful content faster. Use the HTML attribute `defer` within the script tag to ensure JavaScript files are executed only after the HTML has fully parsed [Async function, 2021].

Implement Caching Strategies

Browser Caching

By leveraging browser caching, servers instruct browsers on how to handle resources so they can be stored locally on user’s machine and avoid unnecessary network requests on subsequent visits. This can significantly reduce server response times [HTTP caching, 2022].

Server Caching

Server caching techniques such as database query caching or object caching can also help to improve server response times by storing the result of resource-intensive tasks and serving the precalculated result when identical requests are made [Cache Resources, 2020].

Conclusion

Reducing initial server response times and improving Core Web Vitals scores can be achieved through a combination of upgrading server hardware, optimizing the database, using CDNs, minifying and compressing files, implementing appropriate HTTP protocols, and leveraging various caching strategies. Implementing these strategies enhances the end-user's experience by improving page load speed, navigation, and interaction.

References