Nobody likes a slow web page, not even Google. So if you want to keep the traffic coming in, you need to make sure that your websites and blogs are loading fast enough to intrigue the reader with a short attention span.
The most common method employed to counter a slow-loading webpage is to exercise caching. While caching can be a tricky process, WordPress users can easily cache thanks to the existence of plugins.
WordPress is synonymous with plugins but what you might not know is that plugins don’t just add interesting features to your site – it can also help to make your pages load faster! The biggest hurdle would be choosing the right plugin for your website as there are already so many plugins available for downloading.
WP WSuper Cache
The WP Super Cache engine produces static HTML files and is the highest downloaded caching plugin on WordPress (over 2,009,039 downloads to date). The reason why you would want static HTML files is because PHP-scripted files take a considerable amount of processing time. WP Super Cache converts dynamic PHP pages into static HTML files which require very much less processing time, meaning that your visitors will be able to read your page almost instantly.
This automated plugin is particularly useful if your page is read often either by users who are not logged in, have not left a comment on your blog or readers who have not viewed a password protected post. Generally, super cached files are most suitable for sites that generate heavy traffic flow or if your site’s server is severely underpowered.
Hyper Cache
Just like the WP Super Cache, Hyper Cache is another simple plugin specifically designed to cache blogs. Another common feature is that both the Hyper Cache and Super Cache comes with the GZip compression option.
Hyper Cache is comparatively easier to integrate with other plugins and is even compatible with the Word Press PDA plugins. Hyper Cache works exactly like WP Super Cache and is most applicable for users with low or limited resources on the hosting server (cpu and mysql).
DB Cache
Each query on your database actually takes up a lot of CPU cycles. Hence, instead of storing your WordPress posts and pages in the cache, the DB cache plugin saves them as DB queries and is particularly useful if you own a website with a large database with plenty of content.
As this plugin works completely different from the rest of the other WordPress plugins, it is highly recommended to implement the DB cache with the any other cache plugin to give your site a speed boost.
Quick Cache
This plugin is one of the newer addition to a list of caching plugins available for WordPress users. Quick Cache works by taking a real-time snapshot of all your WordPress blog contents which are then cached for later reference.
Quick Cache excludes caching for users who are logged in, users who have left comments as well as administrative pages, login pages, CPU processes and POST/PUT/GET requests. The Administrator is also in full control of what should and should not be served as cached versions.
W3 Total Cache
W3 Total Cache contains plenty of useful features such as the Page Cache, Database Cache and it can also minimize your CSS and Javascript content. Under the page cache, users can choose not to cache pages for logged-in users and alter the duration of keeping cached files (the default being 3,600 seconds).
If you own an XML sitemap, you can also pre-load cached files before someone visits your page. Similarly, under the Database Cache, you can specify which pages that you never want to cache.
Other Factors to Consider
Does your site really need a speed boost? The easiest way of finding out is to run a speed test. Typically, a page should take less than 4 seconds to load. We recommend that you test your site with the iWeb speed test tool.
There also isn’t much point to having a trimmed and well-programmed website if it is hosted on a server that is unreliable or overloaded. We recommend that you always find a web hosting provider who offers anytime money back guarantee. You can ask for a cancellation and refund of the web hosting fee whenever you want with these web hosting providers.
Also, while the plugins may be free, it is a pretty bad idea to overload your websites with these features. Remember to constantly remove plugins that are not in use anymore. Finally, always optimize the images on your website. A general rule of thumb would be to keep the size of your images below 40KB.
Conclusion
For the sake of site rankings, it is literally compulsory to make sure that your page loads quick enough to entertain visitors. WordPress users benefit the best from utilizing caching plugins on their blogs, but it is also essential to consider other factors (such as image size and server capacity) when it comes to optimizing the performance of your pages.
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the post. Ok about features and all that of Caching Plugins, but which one is excellent? I tried WP Super cache, Hyper cache and W3 Total cache on my blog, but found all of them have its own problems.
Many say W3 Total cache is best, but I found it delays feed publishing considerably (on my server).
Hyper Cache is extremely simple to implement on any server, but I suspect it.
With WP Super cache I couldn’t find any issue, but requires little knowledge to implement on site.
It’s really important topic for any bloggers point of view as they don’t want to loose their visitors plus want to continue rank well in google.
W3 Total Cache is the best Caching plugin which I’ve used till now. If you configure it the right way, then you may see a considerable decrease in your sites load time.
I think WP Super Cache is the best, but it does require a little of tweaking to make it work well.
WP Super cache is best out of all.
Really a great share Jasmine. And I guess Kunal is all correct.
Useful post!. Thanks for the share
i am using WP Super cache..its a good caching plugin.. i recommend it personally..
wp super cache is cool. tried and tested plugin. nice share
Thanks for sharing these plugings.
I heard W3 Total is a great plugin. Is it true?
The plugin Autoptimize is excellent in helping to compress not only css, js, and html files, But also where and how they are stored(gzipping). Another helpful thing about this tool is that is assists in caching too.
What happens to a webserver when a lot of people trying to ask for a page that doesn’t exist?
So the blog has to serve a 404-page.
Most webservers do have a big problem with that, so which plugin will cache a 404-page?
Hypercache does this!
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