# Headers / TTFB

_Source: https://seomatrix.ai/tools/response-headers/_

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## What it does

An HTTP header check reads the response your server returns before the page even renders — the status code, Time to First Byte (TTFB), and headers like Cache-Control, Strict-Transport-Security and Content-Encoding. These headers decide whether a crawler treats your page as live, fast and trustworthy, so a wrong status can quietly keep a page out of Google's index and out of the AI answer engines that cite it, and a slow TTFB can throttle how often crawlers fetch it.

## What it checks

- **HTTP status code** — The numeric response (200 OK, 301 redirect, 404/410 gone, 5xx error) that tells a crawler whether the page is live; anything other than 200 or a clean 301 risks dropping it from the index.
- **TTFB (Time to First Byte)** — The time from request to the first byte of the server's response; a slow TTFB (over ~800ms) signals a sluggish server and delays crawling and rendering.
- **Cache-Control** — The header that tells browsers and CDNs how long to store the response; correct caching cuts repeat load time and server load without serving stale pages.
- **Strict-Transport-Security (HSTS)** — A header that forces browsers to always use HTTPS for your domain, protecting against protocol-downgrade attacks and confirming the secure-by-default signal search engines expect.
- **Content-Encoding (compression)** — Shows whether the response is compressed with gzip or Brotli; compression shrinks transfer size and speeds up delivery, especially on mobile.
- **X-Robots-Tag** — An indexing directive delivered in the HTTP header (e.g. noindex, nofollow); because it can silently block a page from search and AI engines, it is easy to miss without a header check.

## How to use it

1. Paste your URL into the checker and run the request.
2. Review the flagged status code, TTFB and header values against the expected ones.
3. Fix the misconfigured header (or slow server response) at your server or CDN and re-check.

## FAQ

### What counts as a good TTFB?

Under ~200ms is fast, 200–500ms is acceptable, and anything consistently over 800ms is worth speeding up with caching, a CDN or server tuning.

### What HTTP status code should a live page return?

A working page should answer 200 OK; permanent moves use 301, and removed content uses 410 or 404. 5xx errors and long redirect chains make a page harder to crawl.

### Why do HTTP headers matter for SEO and AI citation?

Crawlers read the headers first: a 5xx status or an X-Robots-Tag: noindex header keeps a page out of the index and out of AI engines before they ever see the content.

### Do I need to sign up to use this?

No — the header check is free and needs no signup; just paste a URL and run it.