In this article we wanted to share some tips on how to speed up a WordPress website. Web Performance Optimization (WPO), works with Search Engine Optimization (SEO), as Google of course loves a site that is fast and mobile responsive.
What is Cache?
Cache, pronounced (cash), is how web pages are temporarily stored to quickly serve up to the client (the end user, that is you). To explain simply, there are versions of the web pages you have visited on your computer. When you later return to a page, it will load faster because your computer is requesting the page first from cache not the server. If you hard refresh your cache on your machine (CTRL + R or for macs CMD + R), you will send the request to the web server, as your machines cache is now empty, and a new file needs to be stored.
from Wikepedia:
A web cache (or HTTP cache) is an information technology for the temporary storage (caching) of web documents, such as HTML pages and images, to reduce bandwidth usage, server load, and perceived lag.
Now lets look at some plugins for WordPress on how to speed up your WordPress website.
W3 Total Cache
Author: Frederick Townes
Requires: 3.2 or higher
Compatible up to: 4.3
Last Updated: 2015-8-26
Active Installs: 1+ million
A well maintained plugin that offers fast page loading and CDN support. This plugin comes with high marks and recommendations from web hosts like: Page.ly, Synthesis, DreamHost, MediaTemple, Go Daddy, Host Gator and countless more.
Below is a video to watch the results after installing it.
WP Super Cache
Authors: Donncha O Caoimh and Automattic
Requires: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 4.2.4
Last Updated: 2015-5-15
Active Installs: 1+ million
This plugin is one of the oldest I know of and use the most. One of the authors is Automattic (aka WordPress) themselves, so it should be a given that it’s good quality to have their name associated with it.
After installing I highly advise the recommended settings:
Enable the following:
- PHP caching.
- Compress pages.
- Don’t cache pages for known users.
- Cache rebuild.
- CDN support.
- Extra homepage checks.
If you find a bug there’s a GIT repository too if you want to contribute a patch.
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