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Everyone who has encountered a slow website knows about the importance of loading time. The more multimedia, effects on a page, the more often a website runs slower. Numerous analytics programs, user tracking scripts, heat maps or site integrations with external programs slow down the site causing it to load slower. While the site itself can pass analytics tests well, if too many scripts are included, the loading time slows down by a good 30-40%.
How to remedy this ? Is it possible to speed up websites so that they load in less than 1 second ? Is changing hosting alone enough and worth considering ? See what is wordpress hosting or worth paying attention to the offers of hosting companies.
We often get inquiries about speeding up the site, its technical optimization according to Google Page Speed recommendations and analytical tests of gtmetrix.com
A common problem of sites on Wordpress is installing too many scripts and plugins for everything
The cure for the problems of 'swollen' pages on Wordpress may turn out to be a faster server, but in 90% of cases the problem lies with Wordpress, which is saturated with plug-ins, scripts and too many unoptimized images, animations or multimedia. The work then usually starts with analyzing the frontend code, performing Wordpress integration and analyzing the state of the database.
Table of Contents:
Learn what cache is and how to use it in Wordpress optimization to make it run faster.
What is a cache and why using a cache is important.
Browser cache allows to store data in the cache memory of the user's computer, laptop or phone . When a user opens a page for the first time in the browser, the website data, i.e. images, graphics, css and js scripts, fonts etc., are saved on the hard disk in a separate folder for the time specified in the settings. When trying to access the site again, the browser already retrieves this data from a local source, i.e. the user's computer.
For Wordpress pages, instead of reloading the entire page, Wordpress will display the already downloaded page without loading the server.
View Wordpress website creation or Wordpress care service
Wordpress sites are dynamic sites that is, they display data in real time. All website content is retrieved from the database and displayed to the user on the website accordingly in real time (each time retrieved from the server). The processes of data retrieval and display occur on the database and server side.
The more modules and elements your Wordpress site has, the longer a user will wait for it to fully load and be interactive. For ecommerce solutions, elements like shopping cart or products (and related features) must be downloaded in real time. Other content can be cached and fetched statically from a cache.
To sum up :
Thanks to the use of cache for Wordpress, the site does not generate queries to the database, and the displayed version of the page is a static HTML code
See Wordpress optimization resources :
By using the cache (caching on the server), we save a lot of time by generating the website faster bypassing the processes of reloading data and querying the database.
An effective solution to speed up your site and at the same time reduce loading time is to use either a more expensive server or just a page caching solution. For Wordpress, there are at least two plugins W3 Total Cache and WP Super Cache discussed in this post.
Learn about the advantages and disadvantages of the plug-in and what configuration options it provides.
WP Super Cache plugin generates static HTML files from your wordpress site on the server. Once the static html file of the page is generated, the server will use that very file to display the page instead of generating the file again or the content in real time.
You can install the plugin directly in the Plugins panel in the Wordpress cockpit. All you need to do is enter the name and perform the installation. Once the process is complete, go to the plugin panel.
Site cache activation
After entering Settings -> WP Super Cache, select Caching On and click Update Status.
Cache Test
After enabling the plug-in, it's a good idea to check in the Cache Tester section if everything is working properly. Performing the test will give you a report.
Cache deletion
In case you have changed the content of the page or added new content, it is worth clearing the page cache.
The Delete cache button will delete the entire contents of the cache, i.e. all the generated files, and start generating new static HTML files when the page is reopened.
WP Super Cache advanced setting
We should set it to a minimum of once a day in case there is a commenting system on the site.
Under Cache Restrictions, enable compression of pages sent to users
„Compress pages so they’re served more quickly to visitors. (Recommended)”.
Below are the advanced settings for the plugin
The plug-in generates HTML files for users of :
With WP Super Cache, 99% of site users will get static html files
The plug-in works with the cache in 3 ways:
Expert Mode
The fastest method is to use Apache mod_rewrite (or other similar module supported by the web server) to serve static html files in the "supercache".
This procedure bypasses PHP and is the fastest.
Simple Mode
Static files in Super Cache can be handled by PHP. This is the recommended way to use the plugin. This mode is easier to configure. The .htaccess file does not need to be changed. In this caching mode, you can keep the dynamic parts of the site.
WP-Cache Caching
This is mainly used to cache pages for logged-in users, URLs with parameters. It is the most flexible caching method and slightly slower. WP-Cache caching will cache new users' visits if supercache is disabled. You can also have dynamic sub-pages and solutions on your site in this mode.
We use the plug-in on a daily basis, we notice that it can significantly reduce the page load time i.e.: Time To First Byte (TTFB) parameter improving the quality of use of the site and its technical parameters (Google Core Web Vitals).
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