Time to first byte
Your WordPress thinks before it answers. A static copy has already finished.
Time to first byte (TTFB) is the time from asking for a page until the first byte of it arrives. Google's web.dev counts 0.8 seconds or less as good and more than 1.8 seconds as poor. On WordPress, most of that wait is the page being put together — PHP, plugins and database queries, again for every visitor. A static copy has the page finished before anyone asks, so the first byte leaves at once.
A copy that works like your site
An HTML export writes each page out with the files it names. What a page only loads once it is open — a picture that appears as you scroll, a menu that fills in, content a script fetches, a link that forwards to another address — is often missing, and you find out from a visitor.
A copy from MakeStatic works like your site, not only looks like it. You try it yourself, side by side with your site, before you decide anything — and if a page of the copy ever works differently from yours, write to [email protected] and we fix it.
- Pictures that load as you scroll, in every size your site has for phones and large screens.
- Fonts, icons and everything your theme or page builder brings along.
- Content a script loads once the page is open, and menus that fill in as you move over them.
- Links on your pages that forward to another address still forward.
- Videos that play and let you skip ahead.
- Contact forms that deliver, and a search box that answers.
What time to first byte measures
It starts when the browser sets off for the page and ends when the first byte of the answer arrives: any redirect, looking up the address, making the connection and its encryption, and then the time the server takes to answer. The last part is where a WordPress site loses its time.
It is not one of Google's Core Web Vitals, but everything else waits for it. Largest Contentful Paint, which is one, includes it: a page cannot show what has not arrived.
Why WordPress answers late
- Every visit starts PHP and loads WordPress with all of its plugins.
- The page is put together from database queries, and each is a wait.
- A busy moment makes every visitor wait for the others.
- The hosting sets the floor under all of it; web.dev names it the first thing to look at.
What the usual fixes do
A caching plugin keeps the finished pages and hands them out again, which is the biggest single improvement most WordPress sites can make. It still works within WordPress: a plugin such as WP Rocket does not, by default, cache pages for logged-in visitors, addresses with query strings, or a shop's cart, checkout and account pages. Those are put together fresh, every time.
Better hosting and a content delivery network shorten the rest of the way. Neither changes that there is a WordPress behind the page, ready to be asked.
What a static copy changes
Every page of the copy is finished before anyone asks for it, and it is served without WordPress: no PHP starts, no plugin loads, no database is asked. The server's part of the wait all but disappears, and it does not depend on a cache having been filled first.
Part of any difference is our hosting and not the site being static, and the comparison says so beside its numbers.
Measure your own site
Put your address into the field on this page. We copy that one page and measure the original and the copy in the same browser, one after the other: the time to first byte, and the time until the page first shows. You see both numbers under each, with the two pages side by side.
And the Core Web Vitals?
Largest Contentful Paint, the Core Web Vital for loading, should be 2.5 seconds or less, and the first byte is part of it. A copy that answers sooner leaves the rest of the page more of that time. What comes after the first byte — pictures, fonts, scripts — is your site's own and is the same in the copy.
Sources
web.dev: Time to First Byte, Optimize Time to First Byte, and Largest Contentful Paint; WP Rocket's documentation of the pages it does not cache. Checked on 28 September 2026.
Questions people ask
- What is a good time to first byte?
- 0.8 seconds or less, by web.dev's measure; more than 1.8 seconds is poor. Measure it on the pages your visitors arrive on, not only the home page.
- Is time to first byte one of the Core Web Vitals?
- No. web.dev calls it a foundational metric rather than a Core Web Vital, but Largest Contentful Paint, which is one, includes it.
- Will a static copy make my pictures load faster?
- No, they are the same files. What the copy shortens is the wait before the page starts to arrive; a heavy picture stays heavy.
- Do I still need a caching plugin?
- Not for your visitors: the copy is already finished pages. In the WordPress you edit in, it makes no difference to them either way.
See it on your own site
About twenty seconds, and nothing to sign up for. You will have your site and the copy open next to each other, and can try the copy yourself before you decide anything.