What is TTFB by tab navigations
TTFB by tab navigations shows Time to First Byte (TTFB) based on whether users opened a page in the same tab or in a new tab.
This lens helps identify whether your server-side performance varies depending on how a user reaches your content — continuing from a previous page or starting fresh in a new tab.
It’s particularly helpful for spotting cold cache behavior, inconsistent CDN responses, or session-related backend delays.
Healthy TTFB by tab navigations sample
Should you worry
A healthy TTFB by tab navigations view shows:
Consistent server response times across both navigation types
Minimal variance between same-tab and new-tab sessions
Fast first-byte delivery even when starting from a cold context (like a fresh tab)
This suggests your caching, personalization, and backend logic perform reliably across all entry modes.
Unhealthy TTFB by tab navigations sample
If Data Saver users experience noticeably slower TTFB, common culprits include:
Unoptimized server logic for lighter or fallback versions of your site
Caching headers not applying uniformly to Data Saver requests
Misconfigured redirects, especially for mobile or proxy-based requests
CDN edge misbehavior for alternate UA strings or reduced headers
This can severely affect perceived performance — especially for first-time visitors or those on poor connections.
Resolving unhealthy TTFB by tab navigations
Go-to action plan to resolve an unhealthy TTFB by tab navigations:
Ask Uxi to analyze your TTFB by tab navigations values and suggest improvements.
Use Filters to zoom into new tab/same tab traffic and correlate with slow backend endpoints or cache misses.
Simulate TTFB of the suspected lens to see if fixing it will resolve the TTFB by tab navigations. If yes, this is where the resolution focus should be.
Use an automated optimization tool like Navigation AI to improve your TTFB by tab navigations values.
Once you’ve improved TTFB, set an alert to be the first to know if it starts worsening again.
Try it yourself
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