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Overview

Page speed directly impacts user experience, conversion rates, and search rankings. SEO Crawler tracks response times for every URL discovered during crawls, helping you identify and fix performance bottlenecks.
Available on: All plans (basic metrics), Pro/Agency (trend analysis)

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What We Measure

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Time to First Byte (TTFB)

The time between our crawler sending a request and receiving the first byte of the response. This measures server-side performance:
  • Database queries
  • Server processing
  • Network latency

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Total Response Time

The time to download the complete response body. This includes TTFB plus:
  • Content transfer time
  • Network throughput

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Performance Thresholds

We categorize response times into three levels:
RatingTTFBTotal TimeImpact
🟢 Fast< 200ms< 1sExcellent user experience
🟡 Moderate200-600ms1-3sAcceptable but room for improvement
🔴 Slow> 600ms> 3sNegatively impacts users and SEO
Google considers page speed a ranking factor. Pages with TTFB over 600ms may be deprioritized in search results.

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Why Response Time Matters

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User Experience

Studies show clear correlations between speed and user behavior:
DelayImpact
+1 second7% reduction in conversions
+2 seconds40% of users abandon the page
+3 seconds53% of mobile users leave

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SEO Impact

  • Core Web Vitals: Google measures Largest Contentful Paint, which correlates with TTFB
  • Crawl Efficiency: Slow pages consume more of Google’s crawl budget
  • Mobile-First Indexing: Mobile users on slower connections are particularly affected

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Using Response Time Data

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Dashboard View

The Response Time section shows:
  • Average TTFB: Mean response time across all pages
  • Slowest Pages: Top 10 pages by response time
  • Distribution Chart: Histogram of response times
  • Trend Graph: Performance changes over time (Pro/Agency)

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Identifying Slow Pages

Click any slow page to see:
FieldDescription
URLThe slow page URL
TTFBTime to first byte
Total TimeComplete response time
Response SizeTotal bytes downloaded
HistoryPerformance trend across crawls
Look for pages that are both slow AND high-traffic. Fixing these provides the biggest impact.

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Common Performance Issues

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Server-Side Problems

Symptoms: High TTFB, especially on dynamic pagesSolutions:
  • Add database indexes
  • Optimize queries (avoid N+1 problems)
  • Implement query caching
  • Use database connection pooling
Symptoms: Consistently high TTFB on repeat visitsSolutions:
  • Enable server-side page caching
  • Use a CDN for static assets
  • Implement edge caching for dynamic content
  • Add proper cache headers
Symptoms: High TTFB on pages that fetch external dataSolutions:
  • Cache API responses
  • Make API calls asynchronous
  • Implement circuit breakers
  • Add timeout limits

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Content Problems

Symptoms: Low TTFB but high total timeSolutions:
  • Compress images
  • Enable gzip/brotli compression
  • Minify HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • Remove unused code
Symptoms: High number of requests in waterfallSolutions:
  • Bundle JavaScript files
  • Use CSS sprites
  • Inline critical CSS
  • Lazy load non-critical resources
Response Trends requires the Response Trends scan option to be enabled.
Track performance changes over time to:
  • Detect Regressions: Spot when deployments slow down your site
  • Measure Improvements: Verify optimization efforts are working
  • Identify Patterns: Find time-based performance issues (peak traffic)

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Trend Analysis

The trend view shows: 
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Average TTFB Over Time                                 │
│                                                          │
│  300ms ─┤                    ╭───╮                       │
│         │               ╭────╯   ╰───╮                   │
│  200ms ─┤    ╭─────────╯             ╰────╮              │
│         │────╯                            ╰───────       │
│  100ms ─┤                                                │
│         └────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬────┬───    │
│            Oct 1  8   15   22   29  Nov 5  12   19       │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
Set up alerts to notify you when average response time exceeds a threshold. This catches performance regressions quickly.

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Optimization Checklist

1

Identify Slowest Pages

Review the “Slowest Pages” report to find your biggest bottlenecks.
2

Check High-Traffic Pages

Cross-reference with analytics to prioritize pages that affect the most users.
3

Analyze Server Response

For high TTFB, investigate server-side code, database queries, and caching.
4

Optimize Content

For high total time, compress and optimize page content and assets.
5

Enable CDN

Serve static assets from a CDN to reduce latency for global users.
6

Monitor Continuously

Enable Response Trends to track improvements and catch regressions.

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Filtering Options

FilterDescription
Speed RatingFast, Moderate, Slow
Page TypeHTML, Images, CSS, JavaScript
URL PatternFilter by URL contains/starts with
Time RangeCompare different crawl periods

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Integration with Other Features

Response time data enhances other analyses:
  • Broken Link Detection: Timeouts are tracked with response data
  • SEO Analysis: Slow pages flagged as SEO issues
  • AI Review: Performance incorporated into health scores

SEO Analysis

Page speed is a ranking factor—see your full SEO picture.

AI Review

Get AI-powered recommendations for performance improvements.