TTFB · high impact

Reduce initial server response time (TTFB)

The server is taking too long to generate the HTML document for this page.

Why it matters

A slow Time to First Byte (TTFB) delays everything else on the page. If the server is slow, LCP and FCP are guaranteed to be slow.

How to fix it in WordPress

  1. Ensure you have a page caching plugin installed and active.
  2. Verify that page caching is enabled and working (check headers for 'HIT').
  3. If caching is on but TTFB is still slow, your hosting may be underpowered or a heavy database query is bypassing the cache.

Plugin-specific steps

Already using one of these plugins? Follow the exact steps for your setup.

WP Rocket

  1. 1Go to Settings → WP Rocket.
  2. 2Verify that WP Rocket is active; it enables page caching by default.
  3. 3Go to the Cache tab and ensure 'Enable caching for mobile devices' is checked.

LiteSpeed Cache

  1. 1Go to LiteSpeed Cache → Cache.
  2. 2Ensure 'Enable Cache' is turned ON.
  3. 3Check if your server is running LiteSpeed Web Server to take full advantage of this feature.

How to verify the fix

  • Load the page while logged out of WordPress (incognito mode).
  • Run PageSpeed Insights. The 'Reduce initial server response time' warning should be green.

Find out which of these your site has.

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