Reachability & speed: your first byte matters

This weight-6 check measures whether your site responds cleanly and how fast the first byte arrives (TTFB). It's the first thing the audit runs — everything else depends on it.

What Actuant checks

• The site returns a clean HTTP response → not a fail.
• First byte under 2.5s → pass ("responding in Nms").
• Reachable but slower than 2.5s → partial ("reachable but slow").
• No clean response / timeout → fail.

The rest of the delivery category grades how the response travels: HTTPS enforced (weight 6), Compression (weight 2), Modern HTTP (weight 1), Redirect hygiene (weight 2), and Asset caching (weight 2).

Why it matters

Every extra second before the first byte loses visitors who never see your page. Speed is also a direct Google ranking signal — a slow launch is a quiet launch.

How to fix it

1. 1

   Serve from an edge/CDN

   Vercel and Netlify do this by default. If you're on a single origin server, put a CDN in front.

2. 2

   Kill blocking work on the landing page

   No synchronous API calls before first paint. Fetch data after the page renders.

3. 3

   Lazy-load below the fold

   Defer images and heavy components that aren't visible on first screen.