How to set up WordPress caching? Wp Fastest Cache - WordPress caching plugin

The topic of finding the best plugin for caching and website acceleration still remains very relevant for many WordPress users. And although we have already described various similar plugins individually more than once, today there will be a general overview of several of the most popular and interesting from our point of view. And first, some information for those who are thinking for the first time about the need to install such scripts on their website.

How does the caching plugin work?

A caching plugin reduces page load time by storing information that is frequently used on your site in a convenient location so it can be quickly recreated when needed. Your site will be faster because now the information will be stored closer to home, and it will not have to be pulled all over the Internet.

Absolutely any website can benefit from using the right caching plugin. Caching plugins are absolutely necessary for proper search engine optimization, and they also help improve conversion. However, each plugin offers different options and configurations for what and how it caches.

WordPress caching plugins

One of the best caching plugins for WordPress is WP Rocket. This premium plugin can be purchased for $39 for one site. But it is clearly worth it and has therefore already become a choice for tens of thousands of users. If you're new to caching and don't have the time or inclination to learn it, and just want to outsource the caching to a plugin, then WP Rocket is for you. WP Rocket offers static file compression, reducing the weight of your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files, which in turn helps your pages load faster. It can also download images on demand, similar to large sites such as Yahoo, Facebook and YouTube.

So-called “lazy” loading is available - images are loaded only as you scroll down the page, which allows sites to load quickly and efficiently.

WP Rocket installs easily and quickly. In most cases, you can notice an improvement in site performance immediately after activating it. The only drawback of the plugin is that it does not provide as many advanced options as compared to other solutions.

The most impressive features of WP Rocket:

• Easy installation;
• Almost immediate results;
• Advanced options for more experienced users;
• Support for content delivery networks;
• Functions for online stores;
• Support for premium users;
• Large amount of online documentation.

Minuses: Lack of free options: You won't be able to try WP Rocket until you buy it.

If you want to quickly get your WordPress site up and running in a couple of clicks and not bother with dozens of tweaks, then WP Rocket is probably the best solution. And by the way, I hope that a detailed article about this interesting and powerful plugin will appear on our website soon.

Another great and easy to use WordPress plugin is ZenCache. The extension's most basic features are available for free, making it a good choice for those who want to save not only time and effort, but also money. But if you want to get something like WP Rocket, then you will have to upgrade to the pro version. You will also have to fork out at least $39, but the license will be valid for three years, and not a year like many competitors.

When purchasing the paid version, you will have access to WordPress community support, which means that caching will be available to authorized community members. Without this option, site pages will load slower for unauthorized users.

Zen Cache is very easy to get started: just download the plugin, then enable caching with a few clicks and you're good to go. Be that as it may, due to this automation, your control over the process is reduced to a minimum. If you like to tinker with settings, then there are probably better options for you.

The best features of the plugin:

• Free basic features;
• File compression;
• Caching for authorized users and community members;

Pros: you can try before you buy;

Minuses: The user interface doesn't look particularly attractive.

Price: free or $39 for access to the pro version for one site.

The free version of ZenCache already gives your site a speed advantage, but if you need more, there is always a pro version that you can always upgrade to.

W3 Total Cache is a free WordPress plugin that is ideal for anyone who wants complete control over how content is cached on their website. But remember that this plugin is not for beginners, so you should not use it without understanding what caching is, otherwise you can simply cause a lot of damage to your site.

Although W3 Total Cache was designed for all types of sites, it is still better to use it for large sites, since with it, any site loads quickly even with an influx of visitors. The plugin allows you to save up to 80% of traffic by minimizing content, as well as using HTTP compression for HTML, CSS, JavaScript and feeds.

Best features of W3 Total Cache:

• Free;
• Easily enable default mode;
• There are premium add-ons;
• A wealth of settings and options;
• A very popular plugin that is highly rated by users;
• Potential opportunity to speed up the site by 10 times;
• File minimization and compression;
• Supports most popular content delivery systems;
• A huge number of plugins allow you to gain complete control over the caching process.

Minuses: There are too many options for those who don't understand caching at all.

Pricing: Free or $99 for pro version.

W3 Total Cache installs in one click, but you need to read very carefully about how to configure it, because only then will you be able to get the most out of it... maybe.

If you're looking for a simpler free plugin, this might be your option. This plugin offers fewer options than W3 Total Cache, but its functionality is again impressive.

WP Super Cache is now the most popular choice of WordPress users. It works by showing 99% of your users static files. The plugin does this using census mode or PHP. For the 1% of users who are familiar with the site, the plugin uses legacy caching. This plugin is also good for community sites. The recommended settings for it are also very simple.

The most impressive features of WP Super Cache are:

• Free;
• An impressive range of not too complex settings;
• Good reviews from thousands of users;
• File minimization and compression;
• Support for popular content delivery networks;

pros: A free and powerful plugin that can be used for any type of website.

Minuses: Similar to W3 Total Cache, the plugin may be a little complicated for some users. No pro version or premium support. Doesn't work effectively on all hosting sites.

Price: free

WP Super Cache is a plugin that is clear, user friendly, and easy to install. The plugin is not as feature rich as W3 Total Cache, but it offers more than enough features needed to achieve impressive results and improve SEO. Detailed settings of this plugin can be found in .

Cache Enabler is a new caching plugin. It was created by the KeyCDN team, whose members are experts in website loading optimization, so the plugin can be trusted.

If you are looking for a lightweight plugin for WordPress, then this is your option. Cache Enabler works by simply converting dynamic files into static HTML files. These files are stored on your server and can be quickly restored if necessary.

You can install and configure the Cache Enabler plugin quickly and easily. The plugin automatically clears the cache when necessary, although you can do it manually.

The most impressive features of Cache Enabler are:

• Free;
• Created by a team of experienced developers in the field of website optimization;
• Easy installation step by step;
• Support for popular content delivery networks;

Pros: easy to install and lightweight caching plugin

Minuses: The plugin is relatively new, so it is not as authoritative as older, free alternatives.

Price: free

Cache Enabler is a new plugin that is worth paying attention to if you want to boost your WordPress site and love fresh and advanced solutions.

Each of the above plugins can be an excellent choice for some of you, dear users. Just remember that the hosting where your site “lives” can also play a certain role. So, the last choice is always yours!

I hope there is no need to explain to anyone why a caching plugin is needed and how important it is to choose one that will really help and not just create an extra load on the database with its presence. When analyzing, we will take into account all indicators, not just loading time.

The benefits of caching

A small digression. If anyone still doubts the need for caching, then know that from April 21, Google announced that all mobile-friendly sites (and speed is one of the components of “friendly”) receive a significant advantage in search results. Google's intentions are very clear - SEO specialists and webmasters need to work on the performance of both the desktop and mobile versions of the site.

There are several ways to improve the performance of your site and reduce its loading time, but for most beginner (and not only) optimizers, caching plugins are not one of, but the only tool used to achieve their goal.

WordPress generates pages dynamically, which leads to a large number of queries to the database. Caching dynamically generated pages allows users to see regular HTML pages, which significantly reduces page load time and reduces server load.

Caching Test Details

At the very beginning, it was planned to use 2 themes in the tests - the simplest “twenty-fourteen” and a more complex one (which would imitate a “real” site). But during tests it turned out that the effect of caching on the loading speed of the “twenty-fourteen” theme is so minimal that it can be neglected. Fine-tuning the server turned out to be more important, but today’s article is not about that.

We will end up using only 1 theme (the Novelty theme from Tesla Themes). The test page is designed using graphics and text. There is also a sidebar and several plugins (news, feed from Twitter/Instagram). Hosting used from WP Dev Shed. As a result, we received a page with a relatively long loading time.

Because the site is new, it had no traffic (including, during testing, there were not even PS bots). The server worked in conjunction with Apache+ Ngnix.

The following plugins participated in the test:

1. AIO Cache
2. WP Fast Cache
3. WP-Cache.Com
4. Alpha Cache
5. Flexicache
6. Bodi0's Easy Cache
7. Hyper Cache
8. Hyper Cache Extended
9. Cachify
10. Lite Cache
11. Next Level Cache
12. Really Static
13. Super Static Cache
14. W3 Total Cache
15. Gator Cache
16. Wordfence Falcon
17. WP Fastest Cache
18. WP Rocket
19. WP Super Cache
20. Zen Cache (formerly Quick Cache)

The following remained for the test:

Brutal Cache - did not work;

Batcache is a plugin with a dependency on Memcache, which was not used in the current test.

Autoptimize and Widget Cache were also left out, because... they are not independent plugins, but support for others.

Benchmarking tools

We used services from Google, GTMetrix and Yahoo as tools. Thanks to this, not only page loading speed was tested, but also:

• image optimization;
• minification and optimization of js and css code;
• use of browser caching;
• server time delay;
• use of Gzip compression;
• placement of scripts;
• number of HTTP requests.
• use of CDN, parallelization/domain sharding;

Google PageSpeed ​​Insights

The site is checked both from the point of view of the desktop PC and from the mobile device. The result is given on a 100-point scale. The service is easy to use, but provides a relatively crude result that does not provide a full understanding of everything that can be improved.

GTMetrix and YSlow

Based on Yahoo's performance improvement guide. Again a 100 point scale is used. Services work with more than 50 different metrics. GTMetrix even visualizes the data into a waterfall chart of the loading process. In our opinion, this is one of the best tools for identifying ways to improve website performance.

Timing

The following tools were used to determine page loading speed and check server performance under load:

ApacheBench

Serves to determine the load on the site, calculates the maximum number of requests per second. During the test, 1000 requests were sent across 10 different threads. The test was carried out 10 times. The best result for each plugin was recorded.

A very well-known website monitoring and testing service. 20 tests were carried out with each plugin and the best result was recorded.

A simple but useful service that shows the time it takes for a page to fully load in your browser. This is not a server-side tool, but a service that runs locally. We chose the download method via Ethernet, Opera browser. Each page was downloaded 101 times, with the average download time recorded.

So, let's start testing.

Google, GTMetrix and Yslow

The result of testing website pages using the specified services:

As you can see from the table, some plugins did not perform well here - the score is the same or very close to the score without caching. Google gave Super cache the best rating (for both desktop and mobile). In GTmetrix and Yslow, Fastest Cache and Rocket showed the best results. As we have already said, the rating from Google is less informative, because... it uses fewer factors in its evaluation.

So, the best plugins were WP Super Cache, WP Fastest Cache, and WP Rocket Cache.

Timing

Evaluation scores mainly indicate the quality of a site's code. This gives an understanding of what can be done to speed up the site. However, high ratings for a site do not mean that it loads faster than others. And this is the main mistake - evaluation tools give an abundance of ideas for improving the site to reduce loading time, but at the same time the loading time itself is practically not taken into account. Below is a clear example (screenshot from Pingdom).

The page earned 96 out of 100 points (this is better than 99% of pages on any site). At the same time, the page loads in about 35 seconds. This is what blind optimization can lead to.

Timing is a very important test, because... Real measurements of page loading speed are carried out.

ApacheBench

Let's determine the maximum number of requests per second that our server can support. The higher the number, the better.

WP Rocket showed the best result. Second and third places were shared by WP-Cache.com and WP Fastest Cache.

The result without caching is 2.78 seconds. All plugins were able to improve this indicator.

The undisputed leader is again WPRocket. Super Cache is the second, W3 Total Cache is the third.

Here we decided to display not only the average, but also the median test result.

Average loading time

The situation is similar to the previous test. The top three have not changed - WPRocket, WPSuperCache and W3 TotalCache.

Median loading time

The leader is still WP Rocket, but at the same time the practically unknown WP-Cache.com again shows a very good result.

Not caching alone

Of course, not everything depends only on caching. The choice of the Apache+Nginx combination, the correct server settings and its type (dedicated, VPS, shared), the quantity and quality (optimization) of images and much more play a role.

Conclusion

All presented plugins have different functionality. Some are indecently simple, while others can be compared to a Swiss army knife. Super Cache, W3 and other similar plugins are often used in their work by professionals who are familiar with CDN and other tricks. Other users (especially beginners) opt for simpler plugins (Lite Cache or WP-Cache.com). By the way, WP-Cache.com, despite its little-known status, was able to show excellent results.

Which WordPress plugin does caching better?

In first place (by a wide margin) is WP-Rocket. It has many advantages, but there is one BUT (for many this will be a disadvantage) - it is paid. The developers want $39 for it (and the updates are not life-time, but only for a year)

In second place (although considering how free it is, it can also be put in first place) is WPSuperCache. The results are almost the same as those of the leader, but he is absolutely free!

In third place is WP-cache.com. The only confusing thing is that it was last updated in 2014.

But it is simple, free and shows decent results.

Greetings to all readers. Today I want to talk about one of the points of site optimization on WordPress - speeding up page loading, speeding up the site as a whole. One way to accomplish this task is caching. There are plenty of plugins for creating caches. Two popular ones are Hyper Cache and WP Super Cache. This article walks you through setting up WordPress Hyper Cache.

First things first.

WordPress operation, caching

CMS WordPress is an excellent platform for creating websites. It is easy to set up, convenient, with great functionality, a variety of plugins to implement a task of any complexity. At the same time, the load on the server is greater than when working with static pages.

How does WordPress work? All information, just like in Joomla and other CMS, is stored in various parts of the template and database tables. Each type of information has its own table: posts, comments, information about the author, website, and so on.

Thus, when a visitor calls a certain page, it is generated from different parts of the page used: header, footer, sidebar, content part, then the contents of the database are loaded. The system executes many commands and sends the required number of queries to the database. And this process is repeated again and again when each user opens a new page. This is how a page in HTML format is formed. And it is formed on the hosting server. As attendance increases, the load increases.

Caching is designed to solve this problem.

The principle of data caching

What happens when you use caching? The visitor goes to the site. WordPress performs the queries described above and outputs the HTML page, and at the same time saves it in the appropriate site folder. When accessing this page again, the system does not need to go through a complex generation procedure; it simply calls it from the folder of saved cached pages and transmits it to the user.

This technique facilitates the server’s work and speeds up loading the site in the browser.

A cache is a kind of data storage with quick access to information.

The WordPress database contains a huge number of plugins. But there is a group of so-called required plugins that must be installed on every project. Such as a SEO optimization plugin, for example, SEObyYoast, a backup plugin (WordPress Database Backup), a caching plugin.

Features of installing Hyper Cache

The plugin is installed in the standard way. Here is a detailed one to refresh your memory. There is one small difference. For Hyper Cache to work, after activation it will ask you to make changes to the wp-config.php file.

This file is located at the root of the site. Changes were made to it when installing WordPress, a login and password for the database were specified.

You can adjust wp-config directly on the hosting. For such purposes, I use the specialized program Notpade++.

After saving and uploading the file to the hosting, the plugin has already started working. For individual settings that meet your requirements, you need to go to the Hyper Cache item, which appears in the section Settings.

The plugin has a Russian version, or rather, a Russian translation. Some functions are not translated, but become clear in the general context.

At the top there are three icons that allow you to clear the entire cache if necessary and find out the cache size.

• Delete all cache— the plugin creates a folder for storing cached information. Clicking the button deletes all data. In case of global changes, you should use it.
• Cleaning archives and home— when clicked, the cache of the designated pages is deleted, while the entries and the rest remain saved.
• Calculating Cache Size— information about the size of the folder on the server.

The plugin settings consist of four sections: Main, Exceptions, Mobile, CDN.

Main settings of the Hyper Cache plugin

Let's proceed to a full analysis of each function.

Disable translations— disable translations. When you enable the option and save, the plugin settings will be displayed in native English. If you are an expert in the language, turn it on.

Cached pages will be valid for. Probably the main point. The cache lifetime is configured. The time is set in hours, after which the cache is deleted and a new one will be created when visited by a new user. For ordinary articles that are not updated, you can safely set a value of about 1 week or more. Creating fewer cache files reduces the server resources needed to create them. On frequently changing pages, naturally, the time to place less. The main page of a news site does not need to be cached at all.

Enable compression. Compressing cache pages. Hyper Cache warns: if website web pages are incorrectly displayed in the form of unreadable characters, you should not enable the option, this means the server is already using compression.

Enable on-the-fly compression— enable on-the-fly compression. The process of compressing web pages that are not in the cache occurs. Activation will speed up page loading, but will also increase the load.

When the home page is updated, the rest will be updated. This is the idea behind the function. When updating the main page of the project, you can specify the number of posts whose cache needs to be reset, that is, updated. I don't see the point in this.

When entries are edited. When editing an article to display newly added information to visitors immediately, you should enable this option. There are two options: updating the main page, and pages of archives, sections.

When writing a comment. When a new comment is added, the cache of the specified pages is also updated. Everything is logical here. A person leaves a comment, and the next visitor already sees this comment, and not the saved web page created by Hyper Cache.

Cache folder. The plugin automatically creates a folder to store cached files. Using this function, you can enter the address of the folder you created. But to me, what difference does it make?

Allow browser caching. Surely, at least once when you went to a certain page, you saw in your browser a line like: “You will be shown a saved copy of the page.” This is the work of a similar plugin and this function. The gist of it is this. When visiting, Hyper Cache allows the browser to save the page cache on the user's side, that is, it is saved in the cache folder on the computer. When you access this web page again, it will be shown from your computer's cache, which is faster than if it were shown from the server side. We include this item - we are for speed.

HTTPS. Must be activated when using the secure HTTPS connection protocol.

Use readfile(). File reading option. According to the developers, it works better than the file_get_contents() caching function actually used.

Serves bots with expired pages. The purpose of the function is to give all pages to search robots, even with expired cache. When might this happen? In the case when the cache storage period has expired, and the new user has not visited this post. Since the bots need to be fed up-to-date information (perhaps the posts have been edited), there is no point in enabling this function.

Save the main settings and move on to the next section.

Configuring Hyper Cache plugin exclusion

The plugin has the ability to exclude some site pages from caching. Features are enabled for various reasons.

Don't cache your home page. The main page of personal blogs is almost always the resource’s news feed. Exceptions are commercial sites where there is a description on the front. The home page is the so-called landing page. Everything is individual. If the main one is not updated within a day, you can create a cache; otherwise, there is no point.

Don't cache "page 404". Let's activate it.

Don't cache the comment feed. There is no need to create a comment cache. Visitors should see new comments posted. My opinion.

Do not cache RSS comments feed. Same.

Do not cache pages with URIs — Do not cache pages with URLs. You can set specific pages not to be cached. Enter each URL on a new line.

Do not cache pages with URIs starting with- Do not cache pages with URLs starting from. Used to exclude an entire partition from the cache function. For example, a website with a constantly updated news section, a visited forum.

Bypass the cache for readers with cookies- Bypass cache for readers using cookies.

Bypass the cache for readers with devices (user agents)— Bypass cache for readers using devices. This refers to applications that access sites. For example, a browser.

Bypass the cache for readers which are commenters- Cache bypass for readers who are commenters. When this option is enabled, the visitor who left a comment will immediately see it. In case they are not moderated by the administrator. Otherwise, there will be a message with the following meaning: “Your comment is awaiting moderation.” It becomes clear to the reader that the comment reached its goal and did not get lost.

Do not cache posts older than- Do not cache messages older than . After marking the number of days, articles become old and the plugin stops caching. It’s worth turning it on when old posts stop generating traffic.

There are a few things to note about this topic that are not specific to caching. It is worth reviewing and improving old notes periodically. No matter how much traffic they bring. The information presented in the post is outdated, give the visitor new, up-to-date information. Perhaps the articles are on the way to the first issue and need to be “pushed” to the TOP. Or vice versa, attendance has decreased. It is necessary to expand the semantic core of a specific article, increase the search queries under which the user will get to your site. This could be minor changes to the content, adding graphs, tables or media files. Everything is individual.

I deviated a little from the topic of the post. We continue to configure Hyper Cache.

Hyper Cache plugin settings for mobile devices

The plugin allows you to make settings separately for mobile traffic and desktop PCs. Let's take advantage of this opportunity.

For mobile devices— For mobile devices. At this point there are three options to choose from. When using adaptive design on a resource, leave the settings: Use main cache. In this case, there will be no difference between viewing the page for a PC user and a mobile user.

For the mobile version of the site, when the visitor is shown a page different from the main template (lightweight), set the second option active: Use a separate cache. Hyper Cache will then create two different cache files. With this choice, tell the plugin which template to show to a visitor who comes from a mobile device.

A few words about the adaptive template. More and more people are purchasing and using mobile gadgets to access the Internet. Smartphones and tablets. Traffic from these devices is gradually increasing. According to Yandex Metrica statistics, the percentage of visitors to this site from mobile devices averages 20-25%. In some niches, for example in the service industry, this type of traffic is the main one. If there is no mobile version of the site, search engines in webmaster accounts mark it as a comment and advise you to fix it.

It is likely that resources that are not adapted for viewing on mobile devices will be downgraded in search results. Do not neglect the advice of search engines.

Mobile theme. This point is related to the first. If you select a separate template above, indicate it here. Otherwise, leave the default use of the active site theme.

Mobile user agents. By default, user-agent is specified, which is considered as mobile users. If you have something to add, add it.

CDN HyperCache setup

Unfortunately, I cannot provide complete information on this section. The function includes the ability to provide the visitor with an image, css from cloud storage. Website files are located on different servers and are delivered on demand from the nearest one, thereby reducing the load and increasing speed.

After all the settings, it’s logical to check if “WordPress Hyper Cache is not working?” It's very easy to do. Open the site in another browser. This must be done because the resource administrator is always shown the latest information. View the source code, which opens with the keyboard shortcut CTRL + U. The following code should appear at the very bottom.

If it's not there, refresh the page and look again.

Setting up WordPress Hyper Cache ends here. From this point on, the load on the server will decrease and the website response time will decrease. Caching is only one of the points of site optimization. In one of the following articles I will write an overview of image optimization methods. Here you can read how to use Photoshop.

What caching plugins are you currently using, and are you thinking about using Hyper Cache if you have another one activated?

I wish you all good luck and fast websites!

Dear readers, I want to tell you very important information! With each update, search engines pay more attention to site loading speed. The faster it opens, the higher the likelihood of getting the first lines in the search results.

In this article I will tell you how to use the WordPress caching plugin - Wp Fastest Cache— increase site loading speed.

Before proceeding to install the plugin, I advise you to read. And before activating it and setting it up, check the optimization level and site loading speed using the Gtmetrix.com service.

You should know what problems prevent your resource from working quickly and how highly the service rates it. It’s really interesting to know the results before and after setting up Wp Fastest Cache.

Here are my results:

And here after:

I am involved in improving the web project in a comprehensive manner, so it received A grades close to 100%.

As you may have noticed, the numbers have changed slightly, so maybe it’s not needed at all? - Needed and how!

Remember, optimization consists of small implementations that lead to a perfectly functioning website from an SEO point of view.

The Wp Fastest Cache plugin performs a caching function without which the site you visit cannot work. The fact is that when users access pages, they are created anew each time, creating a load on the server.

If you regularly exceed the limits provided by the hoster, your account will be blocked, as a result of which the site will be unavailable.

You must understand that project traffic is not the only factor that creates a load on the server.

But there is a solution to reduce the load using a caching plugin for WordPress:

It pre-creates static pages on the server and displays them when visitors contact them without creating a load on the server. In this case, the user sees the familiar version of the site, but it will take much less time to load it.

How to set up Wp Fastest Cache?

After installation, click on the icon in the main WordPress panel and go to settings.

For the lazy, you can check all the available boxes, except mobile. Then go to Cache timeout— frequency of updating static pages and select the required option.

I advise you to adhere to the following logic: The more often you publish content, the smaller the gap.

Well, for those who have thoroughly decided to understand the plugin and understand each item in the settings, please proceed further.

First, switch the menu items to Russian. For the changes to take effect, click save.

1. Turn on Caching.

2.Pre-preparation— this item is responsible for creating preliminary site pages. Allows you to create them in advance, and not at the moment when the user requests. Thereby reducing the number of requests to the server.

In the picture below, the red area is responsible for selecting the sections for which static pages will be created. But the blue one is responsible for the number of them created per minute: 4 is enough so as not to create a large load on the server.

4. Mobile— I don’t tick this box. Most likely, caching on mobile devices will work fine this way, but of course this function needs to be tested.

5. New entry— Clears the cache when publishing a new post or page. Of course, you can reset the cache manually so that the user sees the latest version of the site. But you must admit that when this happens automatically, it is much more convenient.

You can choose to clear everything or just Home, Categories, Tags and Pagination. I choose the second option.

6. Updating a record- almost the same, but only when updating the record. So let’s click the checkbox and won’t dwell on this point in detail.

7. HTML Compression— the plugin will partially clean the code of your site: remove spaces and compress. For those who don't already know, your web property for search robots looks like this:

I showed an example where the plugin has already done its job. You can go to any website and look at its code. For Google chrome this is a combination ctrl+U or right mouse button and then View page code. In most cases, you will see nicely structured pieces of code and a lot of indentation.

It’s hard to make out anything in the picture above, but is that important!? These lines are intended for robots who care about essence, not beauty. So I think it is quite justified to include this item in order to reduce the weight of pages and reduce loading time.

8. CSS compression— the action is similar to the previous point, but only for css styles that are responsible for the appearance of your site.

Important! After enabling, be sure to check how your site is displayed. This function does not work correctly with all WordPress templates. Before doing this, do not forget to reset the cache.

9. Combining CSS— in most cases there are more than 1 such files. Enabling this item ensures the merging of all files, thereby reducing the number of requests to one.

Yes, it will weigh the same as all individual files, but what is important to us is the gain in server load. By the way, checking the box may prevent the web project from being displayed correctly. Therefore, do not forget to check the quality of your site in all browsers.

10.JS merging- you probably guessed how this will help you. Let me just say that this is JavaScript - a language incomprehensible to the average user. Interesting - we search and read on the Internet.

11. Gzip compression— archives pages like archiving programs on a computer. Unfortunately, this is available to approximately 90% of webmasters and depends on your hosting provider.

It works like this: archived pages using Gzip are stored on the server. At the time of access by the user, they are unpacked by the browser. And since Gzip compression reduces the weight of pages, it increases loading speeds.

12. Browser cache— certain tags are created in the site code that signal the absence of updates to certain elements.

The browser saves images and fonts to the computer and downloads them if they have not changed. Therefore, a repeat visit takes less time.

13. Disable emoji— turns off the power-hungry, useless emoticon display feature.

All other unavailable checkboxes can be enabled by purchasing the premium version for only $40. I don't have that kind of money, unlike you, so I'm content with the free version.

Now let's quickly go through the remaining tabs:

Clearing cache

Cache statistics are only available in the premium version. But manual cleaning is also available for free. Moreover, there are two options - the second is more complete.

Cache timeout

Choose a timeout depending on the frequency of content updates.

For myself, I decided that once a week would be optimal, since the plugin automatically clears the cache when publishing or updating posts.

Image optimization

Premium

Today I can’t say anything, since I didn’t buy it. Perhaps in the future I will purchase and write a review.

Exceptions

In this section you can disable caching of certain pages, browsers, cookies, css and js.

CDN is a content delivery network.

This is a service with a large number of servers located geographically in different parts of the world. When you connect to this service, your files are distributed across all these servers.

As soon as a user requests a page, the files are sent not from your server, but from a server located as close as possible to the user. This way you relieve hosting and speed up the site.

Database Cleanup

Also available only in the premium version.

I wrote this article for more than one day, I invested a lot of effort, so I hope for your feedback in the form of a comment!

Hello, dear readers. Today, as part of the WordPress optimization section, I will tell you how to speed up WordPress.

One of the main tasks for a webmaster is website optimization. Speeding up a website is quite an important task; with our WordPress CMS, many steps become easier; you just need to install and configure caching plugins. Today we’ll look at the best WordPress caching plugins site.

Infographics

The clear winner, judging by the infographic, is the W3 Total Cache plugin.

Perhaps one of the main questions of the article: which plugin? WordPress caching the fastest. Each site will have its own better caching plugin, it all depends on many parameters (server, types of content on the site...).

We will compare plugins that, in my opinion, are among the best:

To experiment, let's take the Covinr theme, which is a good representation of a modern WordPress site. The Covinr template is good for experimentation because it combines images, Javascript, CSS and HTML files.

The topic is broken down below with the ratio of requests and the ratio of sizes for each element of the group.

The test was carried out 3 times for each plugin separately with the original settings, CDN client-side caching disabled. The results are below:

All plugins do the job, but W3 Total Cache coped with his task better. (on my blog the difference between the HyperCache and W3 Total Cache plugins is clear, the latter reduced the number of requests to the database by 3 times)

Setting up the W3 Total Cache caching plugin

It would be tedious to talk about setting up all 4 caching plugins in one article, but I’d better tell you about setting up W3 Total Cache.

1) First, download the plugin. 2 plugin buttons will appear in the admin panel (in the left sidebar) and at the top (there are no settings in it, only clearing the entire cache):

basic settings

Open General Settings. This section contains the main settings of the plugin, which we activate here.

General— It is possible to immediately activate the plugin’s capabilities, BUT there is a possibility that there will be errors and that your site will not work correctly. Therefore, I do not recommend activating (checking) this item. There is also a preview mode, a test mode, so that the plugin works in real time, click on the (disable) button in the case, as in the screenshot, this is not necessary.

Page Cache— allows you to create a cache for statistical pages. This increases the site loading speed. In the Page cache method: line, if you have a virtual server, then select Disk (enhanced). Next to the save button there is a clear cache button for this item.

Minify— this option allows you to reduce the size of such files with the extension: .css .js .html. Make a backup just in case before enabling this option. With this option, files with this extension are reduced in size by removing empty lines. BUT, if your JS scripts are not valid (I’ll explain: sometimes they don’t put a semicolon at the end of the lines and the browser understands, but when the line breaks are removed, the lines will merge into one, which will lead to errors). You will save a little speed, but you may get enough problems, so you can turn it off.

Database Cache— caching queries to the database. I recommend enabling the option, since WordPress accesses the database very often; by enabling this option, the number of accesses will be much less.

Object Cache— enable the caching object. Contains various objects from the database. It may or may not work to speed up the site. Depends on the disk speed - write and read operations. Check, if it speeds up, then turn it on.

Browser Cache— enable the browser cache option on the client side. When you visit the site again, the browser will save a copy of the site on your computer and will speed up the loading of the site the next time you visit it.

CDN— the option makes it possible to store content (video, photos, audio) not on your own server, i.e. download similar content to the visitor from the geographically closest storage location.

Varnish or (Reverse Proxy)— the option enables the HTTP accelerator. Suitable for large projects; for a blog you can leave this option disabled.

Network Performance & Security powered by CloudFlare- another option, similar to the previous one, for delivering content from another storage. There is also no need to enable it for a not very large blog.

Miscellaneous- add. settings. I have noted: Verify rewrite rules— checks the rewriting rules on the server, some plugins may confuse the settings of the W3 Total Cache plugin, this option will indicate an error. Enable Google Page Speed ​​dashboard widget— a report will be compiled on the speed of the site and its optimization using Google Page Speed.

Debug Mode- not using. Although, when it was checked (Page Cache, Database Cache, Object Cache) there were slightly fewer requests to the database.

Import / Export Settings— import and export of settings. You can save the settings on your computer. Download— save the settings on your computer. Upload— upload settings to the website. Restore Default Settings— restore default settings.

Page Cache tab

The next tab, after General settings. Here you can configure the caching settings for the option in more detail Page Cache. Each subsequent tab provides more detailed settings.

General— in this block we indicate what to cache and what not. We enable the cache for the main page, for registered users, only for the domain of your site, you can also use SSL. We do not enable RSS feed cache and 404 error page.

Cache Preload— enable cache preloading. This will allow the cache to always be ready, preparing already in the background. This will evenly distribute the load on the server. Let's do some math: I'm using an interval of 100 seconds to create a cache for 10 pages. In the next paragraph ( Advanced) I indicate a figure of 2500 seconds ≈ approximately equal to the number of my pages (250). If I indicate in the tab Advanced If the number is 1500, then the cache will be prepared for only 150 pages. After the allotted time, the cache is reset and built again. Also indicate the address to your sitemap, on the basis of which the cache will be prepared.

Purge Policy: Page Cache, Varnish— setting pages whose cache will be deleted immediately after a new article is published. Those pages on which the new article will be shown will be immediately updated and relevant, but if you do not specify this page, then it will be old for some time until the cache is updated. The remaining pages are rarely used and may be a little out of date.

Advanced— additional cache settings. Here we indicate how long the cache will live, after which it will be updated. 3600 seconds - 1 hour is enough, but you can change the time, it all depends on the settings in the item Cache Preload. You can also specify a list of User-Agents for which the page will not be served from the cache. It is very important that search engine bots index relevant pages.

Compatibility mode(Compatibility Mode) - Reduces productivity by 20% in exchange for increased compatibility at work. Recommended to be enabled for most sites.

Minify tab

General— general settings for reducing files. Install: Rewrite the URL structure and disable file minification for registered users.

HTML & XML— reduction of HTML and XML files. We mark everything except Don't minify feeds. The lower window is needed to indicate which comments to leave in the files. (comments that are in the files, not those left by visitors).

JS— settings for reducing JS files. There may be errors when activating the item, so be careful. We indicate where to merge, before the tag or only in certain places. And also mark 2 lines, as in the screenshot.

CSS— reduction of CSS style files. @import handling - allows you to apply a rule @import, this allows you to import the contents of 1 file into another. Select Process.

Advanced- leave it as is. You can change the lifetime of the cache and garbage collection.

Database Cache tab

General— general database cache settings. We put a tick in front of Don’t cache queries for logged in users means don't cache requests for registered ones.

Advanced— cache lifetime, garbage collection, as well as pages that cannot be cached and queries that cannot be cached. Let's leave it as is.

Browser Cache tab

Tab Object Cache we skip because it may be useless.

General— check the boxes as in the screenshot.

The remaining blocks in this tab are file caching. Let's leave it as it is. If you change files frequently, then reduce the cache lifetime for individual files, or clear the cache.

Conclusion: W3 Total Cache plugin very good and perfectly caches files, reducing the load on the site several times. Of all the plugins I've installed, this is the best.