Does your website have a long wait time or poor performance? For many visitors, the slowness of one web page is reason enough to switch to another, which could mean, in the worst case, the loss of potential customers. However, this is not the only factor affected by the optimization, or lack of it, of a web page: ranking in search engines, like Google, also positions fast pages better in the results list . A good tool to optimize the performance of your website are the plugins of caching for WordPress..
Before you start, you may want to know what a cache is.
Every time a web page is visited, the browser sends a request to the server to send it all the necessary data for the desired page. The server then processes the request, including a request directed to the database, and then transfers all the required data and elements to the browser . Processing of the request can take some time, especially for long pages with many and especially complex CSS files, images, or JavaScript files..
To shorten these waiting periods, the so-called cache memory is used . Instead of requesting the dynamic items from the databases and loading them each time again, a static version of the website is cached. As a result, the user is shown a complete web page, which may not correspond to the most current state of the server, but which loads much faster. This is precisely the process that facilitate plugins for caching WordPress.
The IONOS WordPress hosting service stores installed items and corresponding databases with SSD technology, which represents a 50% improvement in the response time of your website..
The caching has many advantages across the board, so it is always necessary. Depending on the hosting service you use, the provider may already take care of caching from the server level , so you don't have to do anything else. This is especially useful for those without specialized knowledge.
Whether you decide on a hosting shared like WordPress host your site on your own server a plugin for caching WordPress will always be a good idea.
According to the items you want to display on your website and how often they change the content a plugin for caching WordPress can have the following drawbacks:
It is recommended to empty the WordPress cache every time you make changes or updates to your web page, so that the browser can directly display the web page with the changes made.
The plugins of caching for WordPress offer very varied functions to improve loading times of web pages. The most important are the following:
A wide variety of caching plugins can be found in the WordPress repository . We have chosen the best of them and we have compared them for you. They all offer very diverse configuration possibilities, so we recommend trying two or three different plugins and running a speed test with Pingdom . So you can check which of them best suits your website, your server and your needs.
WP Cache Fastest which has over one million active installations, is one of the plugins of caching for most used WordPress. Its handling is very simple and offers a wide range of configuration options that can be activated or deactivated by clicking on the corresponding box.
WP Fastest Cache offers, in addition to its free version, a paid version with additional tools to speed up your WordPress page. However, the features of the free version are sufficient for most users.
WP Rocket is a very complete payment plugin that includes all the necessary functions so that your website loads without waiting. Its developers do not offer a free version, but they do offer a 14-day money-back guarantee when purchasing the paid version. Depending on the number of web pages to which the plugin is applied , its price varies between US $ 36.75 and US $ 186.75.
Thanks to its intuitive user interface, its simple configuration and its easy handling, WP Rocket is a good option especially for beginners in the world of caching plugins for WordPress.
W3 Total Cache is completely free and does not offer any paid version with additional features. All the necessary functions are integrated in the basic version . Thanks to the wide range of functions it offers, this plugin can be a bit complicated for beginners, but it is a good choice to get all kinds of detailed configuration options for free.
Unlike W3 Total Cache, WP Super Cache is relatively easy to handle. In particular, the caching modes are very useful : if you are just starting to use these types of plugins , the simple mode allows you to activate an efficient caching that does not carry many risks. If, instead, you want to apply more complex options, the expert mode offers a more detailed configuration . This mode, however, also requires a certain level of prior knowledge, since it modifies important files on the server.
The company that has developed the WP Super Cache plugin is the same one that manages WordPress, so this plugin is considered among WordPress users as the official caching plugin of the system . Its biggest advantage is that it generates static HTML pages . This method, compared to obtaining information from the database, makes the browser display the page much faster.
Now that you have already presented four of the plugins of caching for WordPress best known in this table you can see a comparison of its most important functions.