TTFB (Time to First Byte)
Time from the start of an HTTP request to the receipt of the first byte of the response; a core latency metric.
Definition
TTFB (Time to First Byte) is the time between the client (browser or crawler) sending a request and receiving the first byte of the response. It reflects server and network latency before any content is delivered. A high TTFB delays LCP and can cause AI crawlers with short timeouts to skip or truncate the page.
Relevance to GEO
AI retrieval crawlers often use timeouts of a few seconds. Improving TTFB (e.g. via CDN, server tuning, edge rendering) increases the chance that full content is fetched and indexed for RAG or answers.