YouTube has refreshed its iconic red with a new red-to-magenta gradient to celebrate its 20th anniversary, enhancing visual appeal and color consistency across devices. The subtle update improves accessibility, encourages user interaction, and reflects the platform’s ongoing evolution.
Geoff’s post about the CSS Working Group’s decision to work on inline conditionals inspired some drama in the comments section. Some developers are excited, but it angers others, who fear it will make the future of CSS, well, if-fy. Is this a slippery slope into a hellscape overrun with rogue developers who abuse CSS by implementing excessive logic in what was meant to be a styling language? Nah. Even if some jerk did that, no mainstream blog would ever publish the ramblings of that hypothetical nutcase who goes around putting crazy logic into CSS for the sake of it. Therefore, we know the future of CSS is safe.
My thesis for today’s article offers further reassurance that inline conditionals are probably not the harbinger of the end of civilization: I reckon we can achieve the same functionality right now with style queries, which are gaining pretty good browser support.
If I’m right, Lea’s proposal is more like syntactic sugar which would sometimes be convenient and allow cleaner markup. It’s amusing that any panic-mongering about inline conditionals ruining CSS might be equivalent to catastrophizing adding a ternary operator for a language that already supports if statements.
Indeed, Lea says of her proposed syntax, “Just like ternaries in JS, it may also be more ergonomic for cases where only a small part of the value varies.” She also mentions that CSS has always been conditional. Not that conditionality was ever verboten in CSS, but CSS isn’t always very good at it.
Me too. And many other people, as proven by Lea’s curated list of amazingly complex hacks that people have discovered for simulating inline conditionals with current CSS. Some of these hacks are complicated enough that I’m still unsure if I understand them, but they certainly have cool names. Lea concludes: “If you’re aware of any other techniques, let me know so I can add them.”
Hmm… surely I was missing something regarding the problems these hacks solve. I noted that Lea has a doctorate whereas I’m an idiot. So I scrolled back up and reread, but I couldn’t stop thinking: Are these people doing all this work to avoid putting an extra div around their widgets and using style queries?
It’s fair if people want to avoid superfluous elements in the DOM, but Lea’s list of hacks shows that the alternatives are super complex, so it’s worth a shot to see how far style queries with wrapper divs can take us.
Lea’s motivating examples revolve around setting a “variant” property on a callout, noting we can almost achieve what she wants with style queries, but this hypothetical syntax is sadly invalid:
.callout {
@container (style(--variant: success)) {
border-color: var(--color-success-30);
background-color: var(--color-success-95);
&::before {
content: var(--icon-success);
color: var(--color-success-05);
}
}
}She wants to set styles on both the container itself and its descendants based on --variant. Now, in this specific example, I could get away with hacking the ::after pseudo-element with z-index to give the illusion that it’s the container. Then I could style the borders and background of that. Unfortunately, this solution is as fragile as my ego, and in this other motivating example, Lea wants to set flex-flow of the container based on the variant. In that situation, my pseudo-element solution is not good enough.
Remember, the acceptance of Lea’s proposal into the CSS spec came as her birthday gift from the universe, so it’s not fair to try to replace her gift with one of those cheap fake containers I bought on Temu. She deserves an authentic container.
Let’s try again.
One of the comments on Lea’s proposal mentions type grinding but calls it “a very (I repeat, very) convoluted but working” approach to solving the problem that inline conditionals are intended to solve. That’s not quite fair. Type grinding took me a bit to get my head around, but I think it is more approachable with fewer drawbacks than other hacks. Still, when you look at the samples, this kind of code in production would get annoying. Therefore, let’s bite the bullet and try to build an alternate version of Lea’s flexbox variant sample. My version doesn’t use type grinding or any hack, but “plain old” (not so old) style queries together with wrapper divs, to work around the problem that we can’t use style queries to style the container itself.
Comparing the code from Lea’s sample and my version can help us understand the differences in complexity.
Here are the two versions of the CSS:
And here are the two versions of the markup:
So, simpler CSS and slightly more markup. Maybe we are onto something.
What I like about style queries is that Lea’s proposal uses the style() function, so if and when her proposal makes it into browsers then migrating style queries to inline conditionals and removing the wrappers seems doable. This wouldn’t be a 2025 article if I didn’t mention that migrating this kind of code could be a viable use case for AI. And by the time we get inline conditionals, maybe AI won’t suck.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Have you ever tried to adopt some whizz-bang JavaScript framework that looks elegant in the “to-do list” sample? If so, you will know that solutions that appear compelling in simplistic examples can challenge your will to live in a realistic example. So, let’s see how using style queries in the above manner works out in a more realistic example.
Combine my above sample with this MDN example of HTML5 Validation and Seth Jeffery’s cool demo of morphing pure CSS icons, then feed it all into the “What If” Machine to get the demo below.
All the changes you see to the callout if you make the form valid are based on one custom property. This property is never directly used in CSS property values for the callout but controls the style queries that set the callout’s border color, icon, background color, and content. We set the --variant property at the .callout-wrapper level. I am setting it using CSS, like this:
@property --variant {
syntax: "error | success";
initial-value: error;
inherits: true;
}
body:has(:invalid) .callout-wrapper {
--variant: error;
}
body:not(:has(:invalid)) .callout-wrapper {
--variant: success;
}However, the variable could be set by JavaScript or an inline style in the HTML, like Lea’s samples. Form validation is just my way of making the demo more interactive to show that the callout can change dynamically based on --variant.
It’s off-brand for me to write an article advocating against hacks that bend CSS to our will, and I’m all for “tricking” the language into doing what we want. But using wrappers with style queries might be the simplest thing that works till we get support for inline conditionals. If we want to feel more like we are living in the future, we could use the above approach as a basis for a polyfill for inline conditionals, or some preprocessor magic using something like a Parcel plugin or a PostCSS plugin — but my trigger finger will always itch for the Delete key on such compromises. Lea acknowledges, “If you can do something with style queries, by all means, use style queries — they are almost certainly a better solution.”
I have convinced myself with the experiments in this article that style queries remain a cromulent option even in Lea’s motivating examples — but I still look forward to inline conditionals. In the meantime, at least style queries are easy to understand compared to the other known workarounds. Ironically, I agree with the comments questioning the need for the inline conditionals feature, not because it will ruin CSS but because I believe we can already achieve Lea’s examples with current modern CSS and without hacks. So, we may not need inline conditionals, but they could allow us to write more readable, succinct code. Let me know in the comment section if you can think of examples where we would hit a brick wall of complexity using style queries instead of inline conditionals.
The What If Machine: Bringing the “Iffy” Future of CSS into the Present originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.
OnlyFans leverages a meticulously crafted UX to create a powerful sense of intimacy and exclusivity, captivating users while sparking ethical debates about manipulation and exploitation.
What sets a lucrative directory website apart from an average one?
Studies show that slow-loading directories lose 53% of mobile users, while outdated search filters drive visitors away. Result? Your revenue opportunities slip through the cracks.
A powerful WordPress directory plugin ensures lightning-fast speed, scalable growth, and multiple revenue streams. Features like advanced search filters, unlimited, custom fields, mobile apps, and secure payment gateways give your directory website the edge it needs.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the top features to look for in a WordPress directory plugin. Whether you’re building a business directory, restaurant directory, real estate listings, or classified ads website, these features will set you up for success.
Before we explore further, let’s quickly define a WordPress directory plugin.
Directory plugins are specialized tools that allow you to create and manage listings on your WordPress website. These listings can include businesses, services, events, members, or any other type of categorized content.
What’s more, directory plugins provide features like search functionality, map integration, user submissions, and monetization options, making it easy to build a full-fledged directory website.
Directory plugins play an important role in transforming a simple WordPress website into a fully functional directory platform.
As said, whether you’re building a business directory, job board, real estate listings, or a classified ads website, a quality directory plugin provides all the necessary tools you need to organize, display, and manage directory listings efficiently.
Managing a directory manually can be time-consuming and inefficient. Directory plugins streamline the process by providing an intuitive dashboard where you can add, edit, and organize listings with ease.
They also allow users to submit their listings, reducing the administrative burden on your team.
A well-designed directory improves the user experience by making it easy for visitors to find the information they need.
Features like advanced search filters, map integration, and responsive design ensure that users can navigate your directory seamlessly, no matter whether they’re on a desktop or mobile device.
Directory plugins often include features like user reviews, ratings, and social sharing options. These tools encourage interaction and engagement that eventually help you to build a community around your directory.
A local business directory with reviews, for example, can foster trust and credibility among users.
Directories can be a lucrative source of revenue. Many directory plugins offer monetization features such as paid listings, membership plans, and ad placements. These options allow you to generate income while providing value to your users.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is essential for driving traffic to your directory. Directory plugins often include SEO-friendly features like customizable meta tags, schema markup, and clean URLs. They help your directory rank higher in search engine results, making it easier for users to find your directory website with ease.
Every directory is unique, and directory plugins offer the flexibility to customize your listings to meet specific needs. If you want to create a directory website of any niche, you can easily tailor the fields, categories, and designs to match your vision.
As your directory grows, you need a solution that can scale with your needs. Directory plugins can handle large volumes of listings and users without sacrificing performance. This scalability ensures that your directory remains functional and efficient as it expands.
Directory plugins often integrate with popular third-party tools like Google Maps, payment gateways, and email marketing platforms. These integrations enhance functionality and streamline operations, saving you time and effort.
Choosing the right WordPress directory plugin is crucial for building a functional and user-friendly directory website.
The ideal plugin should offer a balance of customization, performance, and monetization options. Here are the key features to consider.
The multi-directory feature is an excellent choice for managing various directories within a single website. It provides a seamless experience for handling different niches, such as restaurants, or services, without the need for separate installations.
With this feature, each directory can have its own set of categories, layouts, and user management, offering the flexibility to cater to distinct audiences while centralizing operations under one platform.
With the rise of mobile browsing, a directory plugin with a mobile app (Android & iOS) option elevates the user experience by providing quick and easy access to your directory.
Users can browse listings, submit information, and even engage in real-time notifications directly from their phones.
Moreover, native apps are optimized for faster load times and smoother navigation, which increases user engagement and retention.
Customizing listing submission forms is essential for gathering relevant data. An advanced form builder allows you to create and modify fields like checkboxes, text fields, and file uploads effortlessly.
This feature ensures your directory captures all necessary details specific to your niche, offering a tailored user experience and improving the directory’s functionality.
For those managing large directories, a CSV bulk importer streamlines the process of importing and updating multiple listings simultaneously. This feature is crucial for quickly scaling your directory without having to manually input each listing.
The bulk importer ensures consistency across all listings, preventing errors and saving time on tedious data entry, thus allowing admins to focus on more strategic aspects of the directory.
Frontend listing submission and management empower users to submit and manage their listings without accessing the back-end dashboard. This reduces administrative overhead and increases user autonomy.
A well-designed frontend management system ensures that users can update their listings with ease, improving the overall efficiency of the directory and keeping content fresh and relevant.
WooCommerce multivendor compatibility turns your directory into a dynamic marketplace, allowing vendors to manage their shops and products.
It also enables directory owners to monetize by offering paid listings or earning commissions on vendor sales.
As mentioned earlier, every directory has a unique set of requirements. The ability to customize fields is essential for any directory website, be it a restaurant, doctor, lawyer, or real estate directory.
Therefore, look for a directory plugin that allows you to add, remove, or edit fields such as text boxes, dropdowns, checkboxes, and image uploads. This flexibility ensures your directory meets your specific needs.
A robust search functionality is essential for any directory. Users should be able to find listings quickly and easily. Hence, your next directory plugin should offer advanced search and filtering options, such as:
These features enhance the user experience and make your directory more valuable to visitors.
According to a study, over 96% of internet users access the internet via mobile devices. Meaning, that the majority of web traffic comes from mobile devices.
A mobile-friendly design ensures that users can browse and submit listings seamlessly on any device. Additionally, a responsive design improves your website’s SEO, as search engines prioritize mobile-friendly sites. So, you should prioritize this essential feature in your directory plugin.
A directory plugin should be easy to use for both administrators and end-users. Choose a plugin with an intuitive dashboard that simplifies the process of adding, editing, and managing listings.
A clean and straightforward design ensures that users can submit listings without confusion, while admins can efficiently manage the directory without technical expertise.
If you’re looking to generate revenue from your directory, monetization features come into the priority. Here, your plugins should support:
These features empower you to build a sustainable business model while delivering exceptional value to your users.
Map integration is a play-maker for location-based directories. Plugins with Google Maps integration allow users to visualize listings geographically, making it easier to find businesses or services near them.
This feature is particularly useful for restaurants, real estate, local businesses, and event directories.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for driving organic traffic to your directory. Look for plugins that offer SEO-friendly features, such as:
These features help your directory rank higher in search engine results, attracting more visitors.
User reviews and ratings build trust and engagement within your directory. They provide valuable feedback for businesses and help users make informed decisions.
Ensure the plugin includes a review system with moderation tools, so you can manage and approve reviews to maintain quality and credibility.
If your directory includes paid listings or memberships, secure payment gateway integration is essential. Your plugin should support popular payment options like PayPal, Stripe, or credit card payments.
Multiple payment options improve user convenience and increase the likelihood of conversions a directory website owner desires.
As your directory grows, it’s important that your plugin can handle increased traffic and listings without questioning website performance.
So, speed and scalability should walk along with your directory plugin. Because fast loading times and efficient database management ensure a smooth experience for both admins and users.
Reliable customer support and comprehensive documentation are critical when using any WordPress plugin. Choose the plugins that offer:
A strong support system ensures that you can resolve issues quickly and keep your directory running smoothly.
To streamline operations and enhance functionality beyond the boundary, seal a plugin that integrates with third-party tools. For example:
These integrations help you automate tasks, track performance, and improve user engagement.
Pre-made templates allow users to set up their directories in no time, eliminating the need to start from scratch.
This feature streamlines the process, saving valuable time while ensuring a professional, polished result.
Selecting the right WordPress directory plugin is essential for building a scalable and user-friendly directory website. With the right set of features—like advanced search filters, monetization options, and SEO optimization—you can enhance usability and maximize revenue potential.
By prioritizing customization, performance, and seamless integrations, you create a directory that not only attracts visitors but also keeps them engaged. A well-optimized plugin ensures smooth navigation and a superior user experience, setting your site apart in a competitive market.
Featured image by Justin Morgan on Unsplash
The post Top Features to Look for in a WordPress Directory Plugin appeared first on noupe.
Bitly’s new preview page, which adds an extra click and includes ads, undermines the simplicity and efficiency that made the service popular. Users now face the choice of dealing with interruptions or paying for a premium plan, making Bitly less appealing as a URL shortening tool.
Google Maps in India is a great example of designing with real people in mind, tackling everything from landmark-based directions to language barriers and patchy internet. By listening to users and testing in the chaos of real-life streets, Google created a navigation tool that millions now rely on every day.
Social media has transformed B2B marketing by providing a strategic platform for businesses to connect with potential clients, build relationships, and enhance brand visibility. Unlike traditional marketing, social media allows for real-time interaction and engagement, offering insights into audience preferences and behaviors. This level of interaction is crucial for establishing trust and credibility in a crowded marketplace. This type of marketing can entail everything from influencer marketing to live streaming and must be approached strategically for optimal outcomes.
The sales funnel is the heart of effective B2B marketing. It illustrates the customer journey from initial awareness to final conversion. The funnel comprises several stages: awareness, interest, consideration, intent, evaluation, and purchase. Social media is a critical tool at every stage, helping brands capture prospects’ attention, nurture leads through informative content, and ultimately facilitate conversions.
By implementing targeted social media tactics tailored to each phase, B2B companies can enhance their marketing efforts, improve ROI, and drive sustainable growth.
To capture the attention of your target audience, start by producing high-quality, relevant content that addresses their pain points and interests. Utilize formats like infographics, videos, and case studies to convey information in an engaging manner. Additionally, including storytelling elements can make your messaging relatable and memorable.
Leverage social media advertising to enhance brand visibility by targeting specific demographics based on job role, industry, and interests. Platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook allow for tailored ads that can reach your ideal audience effectively. Don’t underestimate the power of influencer marketing, either. This new frontier in marketing allows you to give your brand a voice audiences trust. It’s also essential if you’re targeting young audiences.
Track KPIs such as impressions, engagement rates (likes, shares, comments), and click-through rates to measure the effectiveness of your brand awareness initiatives. Monitoring website traffic and conversion rates from social media can provide insights into how well your campaigns are fostering awareness and interest. Adjust your strategies based on these insights to optimize your efforts continually.
Nurturing leads involves building relationships with potential clients over time, guiding them through the purchasing journey with valuable information and personalized interactions. It looks like providing relevant resources, responding to inquiries promptly, and fostering trust to encourage prospects to move closer to a purchase decision. Captivating prospects through meaningful content and authentic engagement is essential for nurturing leads effectively. This can be achieved through:
Fostering a community on social media allows for deeper connections with prospects, turning them into loyal customers who feel invested in your brand’s journey.
The following are some practical strategies to effectively transform leads into customers:
Implementing these strategies creates a compelling narrative that resonates with leads and encourages them to make a purchasing decision influenced by social proof and personalized engagement.
By leveraging social media management tools, businesses can enhance their social media strategies and drive successful engagement with their audience. Using these tools can significantly enhance a business’s efficiency by streamlining content creation, scheduling, and analytics tracking. These tools can also enable companies to maintain a consistent online presence, ultimately leading to improved engagement rates and better overall business outcomes. Key social media management tools may include the following:
By leveraging a combination of these tools, businesses can enhance their social media strategies and drive successful engagement with their audience.
The journey from awareness to conversion in the B2B landscape is a deliberate process hinges on a cohesive social media strategy. Initially, businesses must capture the attention of potential leads through insightful content that speaks to their pain points and interests. As engagement grows, nurturing relationships becomes paramount; crafting personalized interactions can build trust and credibility.
Companies can streamline efforts and optimize their content by leveraging the right social media management tools — ranging from scheduling platforms to engagement analytics. This approach facilitates consistent communication and enhances the overall user experience with visually appealing and relevant messaging.
Featured image by Kerde Severin
The post From Awareness to Conversion: Social Media Tactics for B2B Success appeared first on noupe.
Adam’s such a mad scientist with CSS. He’s been putting together a series of “notebooks” that make it easy for him to demo code. He’s got one for gradient text, one for a comparison slider, another for accordions, and the list goes on.
One of his latest is a notebook of scroll-driven animations. They’re all impressive as heck, as you’d expect from Adam. But it’s the simplicity of the first few examples that I love most. Here I am recreating two of the effects in a CodePen, which you’ll want to view in the latest version of Chrome for support.
This is a perfect example of how a scroll-driven animation is simply a normal CSS animation, just tied to scrolling instead of the document’s default timeline, which starts on render. We’re talking about the same set of keyframes:
@keyframes slide-in-from-left {
from {
transform: translateX(-100%);
}
}All we have to do to trigger scrolling is call the animation and assign it to the timeline:
li {
animation: var(--animation) linear both;
animation-timeline: view();
}Notice how there’s no duration set on the animation. There’s no need to since we’re dealing with a scroll-based timeline instead of the document’s timeline. We’re using the view() function instead of the scroll() function, which acts sort of like JavsScript’s Intersection Observer where scrolling is based on where the element comes into view and intersects the scrollable area.
It’s easy to drop your jaw and ooo and ahh all over Adam’s demos, especially as they get more advanced. But just remember that we’re still working with plain ol’ CSS animations. The difference is the timeline they’re on.
Scroll Driven Animations Notebook originally published on CSS-Tricks, which is part of the DigitalOcean family. You should get the newsletter.
And so, this is how the chatbots revolutionized the beauty care industry…
This is the disruption that experts were talking about. Yet, many experts were skeptical of how an AI chatbot could add the human element to the beauty industry. Today chatbots have become a reality with leading beauty brands such as Sephora, L’oreal Paris, Covergirl, and Kiehl’s using it in their process, with other brands on their way of doing so. And if you’re planning to do the same, there are many chatbot providers in the market that you can look for.
But what exactly are chatbots? If you don’t have precise knowledge about it, read on for absolute information.
It is one of the latest technologies; the programs that facilitate communication with humans over the internet. There are chiefly two types of chatbots: rule-based chatbots and AI chatbots. The rule-based chatbots convey the repetitive answers to common queries, while AI chatbots can carry out human-like conversations. Therefore, these AI bots are popular in the customer service, marketing, and sales departments.
Now a crucial question- Have you contacted a customer representative by phone or asked queries in chat?
Many people have, at some point. For instance, we have inquired with agents about banking services, mobile services, and so on. But have you noticed the services aren’t as instant as those provided by bots?
And why is that? The agents are humans, and they take their time to execute the process. In this scenario, the chatbot’s role comes into play. These bots are really fast as they are intelligently designed. They are the AI employees on their toes, willing to go the extra mile to make the customer happy (without themselves knowing it) ?
A happy customer means you won the business game in the long run.
A quote by Tim Horst, an online marketing expert, perfectly fits the context:
“Chatbots are similar to WhatsApp. If you don’t use technology wisely, you won’t be successful. However, when chatbots are well made and help customers, they’re extremely well-received by customers.”
Tim Horst
So, how exactly would chatbots revolutionize the beauty care industry?
Every person is unique. We can’t use the same beauty products for all, as it could worsen the existing conditions.
AI chatbots in the customer service sector of beauty care companies are here to provide customized beauty solutions. It includes planning skin regimen, matching hair color, and many others. In the future, we could expect even more advanced solutions that might eliminate physical visits.
Below you can see the global growth of AI (AI chatbot) in the beauty and cosmetics market:
As you can see here, the global AI (which chatbots are part of) in the beauty and cosmetics market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.8%. The forecasted market size for 2033 is USD $16.4B. That’s an impressive rate; don’t you think so?
Now, we’d talk about how exactly it works and would change the entire work structure in the beauty care industry:
Chatbots could accurately predict future trends where even some human service agents fail. This happens because these intelligent chatbots can record past trends, interests, queries, and others.
In the below image, you can see how an AI chatbot works:
Here the user initiates a request, which is then analyzed using NLP (natural language processing). It further leads to a real-time response, further analyzed using machine learning and deep learning- components of artificial intelligence. This technology facilitates a better user experience and boosts revenue.
AI chatbots analyze the pulse of the customer and interact accordingly. The customer receives personalized information on the latest and upcoming trends. With accurate predictions and suggestions, it makes the customer satisfied.
Good customer experience often leads to better customer lifetime value.
The AI could anticipate required beauty solutions in a short time.
This is a breakthrough and useful for the customer service department in the beauty care industry. The entire process becomes fast and streamlined. In the below image, you can see how it analyzes the solutions for a customer:
Cetaphil is a well-known brand and is popular among users. The brand has a skin analysis tool. The process starts when the customer needs to upload her/his selfie, then the brand moves onto the next stage of providing the right solutions such as recommendations for sensitive skin, what skincare products not to use, how many times to use a product in a day, etc.
The brand celebrates individuality and meets the needs of customers.
Just imagine a scenario, where you provide training to human agents and they leave after a few months. Isn’t that a loss for the company?
In the case of chatbots, they aren’t going anywhere- you could say they are your loyal employees and need some updates at a specific time!!
Additionally, they reduce costs by working for various beauty services and different customers concurrently.
Find the below image to understand how a chatbot could handle multiple tasks in this industry:
In the above image, you can see chatbots interacting with customers for different services through questions and answers such as:
What’s your current top beauty concern? How much time daily do you need for your beauty routine? Specific beauty goals an individual is looking for? Favorite skincare products or must-have ingredients? Specific skin type or concern for personalized advice and so on.
The entire work structure shows how smart these chatbots are. Organizations now don’t need a high number of professionals to handle such queries. That doesn’t imply you could entirely eliminate the human role; you still need professionals for critical customer services.
Chatbots have already revolutionized the process in various departments of reputable organizations. With further advancement in technology, we’d see high performance of these bots.
Featured image by Camille Brodard on Unsplash
The post How Chatbots Could Revolutionize Beauty Care Industry? appeared first on noupe.
This article is a sponsored by DebugBear
Loading your website HTML quickly has a big impact on visitor experience. After all, no page content can be displayed until after the first chunk of the HTML has been loaded. That’s why the Time to First Byte (TTFB) metric is important: it measures how soon after navigation the browser starts receiving the HTML response.
Generating the HTML document quickly plays a big part in minimizing TTFB delays. But actually, there’s a lot more to optimizing this metric. In this article, we’ll take a look at what else can cause poor TTFB and what you can do to fix it.
What Components Make Up The Time To First Byte Metric?
TTFB stands for Time to First Byte. But where does it measure from?
Different tools handle this differently. Some only count the time spent sending the HTTP request and getting a response, ignoring everything else that needs to happen first before the resource can be loaded. However, when looking at Google’s Core Web Vitals, TTFB starts from the time when the users start navigating to a new page. That means TTFB includes:
We can see an example of this in this request waterfall visualization.
The server response time here is only 183 milliseconds, or about 12% of the overall TTFB metric. Half of the time is instead spent on a cross-origin redirect — a separate HTTP request that returns a redirect response before we can even make the request that returns the website’s HTML code. And when we make that request, most of the time is spent on establishing the server connection.
Connecting to a server on the web typically takes three round trips on the network:
What Network Latency Means For Time To First Byte
Let’s add up all the network round trips in the example above:
That means that before we even get the first response byte for our page we actually have to send data back and forth between the browser and a server eight times!
That’s where network latency comes in, or network round trip time (RTT) if we look at the time it takes to send data to a server and receive a response in the browser. On a high-latency connection with a 150 millisecond RTT, making those eight round trips will take 1.2 seconds. So, even if the server always responds instantly, we can’t get a TTFB lower than that number.
Network latency depends a lot on the geographic distances between the visitor’s device and the server the browser is connecting to. You can see the impact of that in practice by running a global TTFB test on a website. Here, I’ve tested a website that’s hosted in Brazil. We get good TTFB scores when testing from Brazil and the US East Coast. However, visitors from Europe, Asia, or Australia wait a while for the website to load.
What Content Delivery Networks Mean for Time to First Byte
One way to speed up your website is by using a Content Delivery Network (CDN). These services provide a network of globally distributed server locations. Instead of each round trip going all the way to where your web application is hosted, browsers instead connect to a nearby CDN server (called an edge node). That greatly reduces the time spent on establishing the server connection, improving your overall TTFB metric.
By default, the actual HTML request still has to be sent to your web app. However, if your content isn’t dynamic, you can also cache responses at the CDN edge node. That way, the request can be served entirely through the CDN instead of data traveling all across the world.
If we run a TTFB test on a website that uses a CDN, we can see that each server response comes from a regional data center close to where the request was made. In many cases, we get a TTFB of under 200 milliseconds, thanks to the response already being cached at the edge node.
How To Improve Time To First Byte
What you need to do to improve your website’s TTFB score depends on what its biggest contributing component is.
Keep in mind that TTFB depends on how visitors are accessing your website. For example, if they are logged into your application, the page content probably can’t be served from the cache. You may also see a spike in TTFB when running an ad campaign, as visitors are redirected through a click-tracking server.
Monitor Real User Time To First Byte
If you want to get a breakdown of what TTFB looks like for different visitors on your website, you need real user monitoring. That way, you can break down how visitor location, login status, or the referrer domain impact real user experience.
DebugBear can help you collect real user metrics for Time to First Byte, Google Core Web Vitals, and other page speed metrics. You can track individual TTFB components like TCP duration or redirect time and break down website performance by country, ad campaign, and more.
Conclusion
By looking at everything that’s involved in serving the first byte of a website to a visitor, we’ve seen that just reducing server response time isn’t enough and often won’t even be the most impactful change you can make on your website.
Just because your website is fast in one location doesn’t mean it’s fast for everyone, as website speed varies based on where the visitor is accessing your site from.
Content Delivery Networks are an incredibly powerful way to improve TTFB. Even if you don’t use any of their advanced features, just using their global server network saves a lot of time when establishing a server connection.
