Reduce First Byte Time Load

[mutinyzoo]

I'm getting a very slow first byte load time here at http://www.renaissancemaninc.com, and looking for any insight.

I plan to get css-js-loader working after working out css conflicts, but is there anything else I might want to look at?

Thanks much for any input.

[stevesh]

Loads quickly here.

[lat9]

Likewise, although using the "Net" tab on my Firebug console, your main page's payload is 633.9KB comprising 72 separate files. That could slow some people down.

[cvhainb]

There are 282 products on your site so I think your site has not any problem about the page load :)

I'm getting a very slow first byte load time here at http://www.renaissancemaninc.com, and looking for any insight.

I plan to get css-js-loader working after working out css conflicts, but is there anything else I might want to look at?

Thanks much for any input.

[mutinyzoo]

Likewise, although using the "Net" tab on my Firebug console, your main page's payload is 633.9KB comprising 72 separate files. That could slow some people down.

Thank you all for your input. Am I correct in the understanding that elements such as the banner slider that load AFTER the main page, are not involved in the TTFP (time to first byte)?

[balihr]

TTFB doesn't have anything to do with the number of requests nor the additional elements you're loading. You can have 5 elements or 5000, that won't affect your TTFB.
Before going any further, read what it says - literally. It's time to FIRST byte. Zen Cart is a dynamic website and pages are literally built on the fly. I understand YOU know this, but I'm gonna write it anyway for other people reading this post: try going to YOUR_DOMAIN/index.php - you'll get a fully compiled HTML website in your browser. Then go to your server and check the index.php in root and you'll see it's completely different and has nothing to do with what was generated in the browser. So, what happens?

When you go to any page of your site, the server needs to build the output before sending it to the visitor's browser. With Zen Cart, server will have to check auto_loaders, init_includes, functions and many other files, go through hoops and loops with template related files, put it all together and then serve the generated HTML to the browser. All of that server processing is what happens in the famous TTFB. Once the structure is built and "sent out", TTFB ends and the remainder of your content starts loading (including css, js, images etc.).

From my experience, this is usually fixed by upgrading to a better server, but also depends on the current server load. For example, the latest site that I did some speed optimization varied from A to F according to webpagetest.org, all depending on time when I ran the tests and, of course, test location.

P.S. You might wanna add target=_blank to Zen Cart and mZoo links in the footer...