Caching is a way to speed up the responsiveness of your site. Imagine data as things that you need to access while you’re on the go—caching is like having your lip balm in your fanny pack, as opposed to your backpack; it saves you a little time and you can grab it without interrupting your stride. Your backpack is like a hard disk, you need to access it, and then locate the item in relation to a bunch of other stuff.
Caching is the process of storing frequently accessed information in temporary or Random Access Memory(RAM) so it is easier to request and serve. The same information is usually stored on a hard disk, which involves more computation and processes to acquire. Your WordPress site can use the same caching technology while running your site, gaining the same benefits and reducing response time.
WordPress operates as a dynamic content management system. When multiple users are visiting your site and accessing your pages all at once, lots of process and request/response cycles must be completed many times over before pages can be loaded by the user’s browser. By using caching plugins and technology, you can reduce time fractionally over each of those users and their processes, resulting in quicker pages and more user interaction.
W3 Total Cache
W3 always makes the list, and there’s a reason why. It is efficient and comprehensive. It caches your sites Javascript files, database objects, and compresses your HTML files. It is a complete framework which aims to go beyond reducing CPU usage and HTML bandwidth consumption, regardless of your hosting environment. With optimum configurations it can increase your website’s response time 10 times over. If you struggle with configuration or setup, many guides are available online. Customer support is responsive and helpful in helping you solve software and configuration issues.
WP Fastest Cache
WP Fastest Cache can actually improve your SEO by caching your site for responsiveness. By reducing times to serve your site, having your site rendered in a cache version, your users will not experience downtime while new PHP or SQL files are created. When your site loads faster, users spend more time accessing your features and pages.
WP Rocket
WP Rocket may be the most accessible caching plugin for WordPress. It is extremely user-friendly and allows you to cache your site with one click. If you are more advanced, or research website responsiveness, it also features more comprehensive features as well. A feature like DNS prefetching will allow your website’s IP address to be resolved before a user clicks.
CacheEnabler
CacheEnabler will create a static HTML file to cache, which will decrease your site’s response time. File creation time will be reduced so that more responsive services can be prioritized. You can also automatically set when to clear the cache, adding another simple piece of automation that saves you time.
WP Cloudflare Superpage Cache
Always check with your website host for options to increase performance. For instance, CanSpace offers Cloudflare accelerator services free of charge to sites that utilize our hosting. WP Cloudflare is integrated with Cloudflare CDN at the global level, and all your sites HTML, JS, and CSS files at the server-disk level. It is ready to go right out of the gate, just use your Cloudflare account’s API, or API Token. If you are a more advanced user you can also adjust settings to optimize performance for different criteria.
Whichever caching plugin you ultimately choose, you can’t go wrong. Spend some time researching your site and view developer’s tools and analytics to see where you may be slowing down. The speed and responsiveness of your site is integral to user experience, user interaction, and your site’s SEO rankings. Speed is king, and you want to know that you have a host that can support your needs. For any questions about hosting, site responsiveness, and whether or not you should make a switch, don’t hesitate to contact us.
