A website that can be accessed quickly allows for an enhanced customer experience. It is also good for website SEO and improves the ranking of the website, Google search engine will now make the website speed as an important ranking factor.
WP Super Cache is a popular plugin that creates static HTML files for web pages. It saves server resources and thus makes websites load faster.
What is WP Super Cache and why should I use it?
WP Super CacheIt is one of the most popular WordPress caching plugins. It is a free tool with over a million active installs.
WP Super Cache creates a cache of every page on your website as a static HTML file. This way, whenever someone visits the site, they'll quickly get the cached version without having to fetch the entire site's resources from scratch.
As a result, the speed and performance of your WordPress website will be significantly improved. The caching plugin skips many steps in the background to ensure that visitors don't have to wait for the page to open.
This improves the experience of website visitors. Websites that load fast attract people to visit it more often, leading to more engagement and conversions as users spend more time on posts and pages.
On top of that, with a fast-loading website, it's possible to seeWordPress SEOand improved search engine rankings. This is because Google offers an advantage to faster websites because it uses website speed as a ranking factor.
Setting up WP Super Cache - the easy way
The first thing to do is to install and activate the WP Super Cache plugin on your website.
When activated, WP Super Cache will notify the site that caching is not currently enabled.
To enable caching, go toSet "WP Super Cache. Then, in "simpler" tab, continue and click "Cache on" option. When finished, click the "Update Status"Button.
With the cache open, scroll down to "Cache Tester"Part.
Upon arrival, click on "Test Cache" button to check if it is working properly.
WP Super Cache will crawl your WordPress site twice and compare the times of the two pages. If the two times match, it means the cache is now running on the site.
WP Super Cache Advanced Settings
WP Super Cache is a powerful WordPress plugin that comes with tons of advanced options. These options can further improve the performance of your website and give you better control over how the plugin caches your website.
Enable Cache
To set up WP Super Cache with advanced options, go to the WP Super Cache plugin settings in the"Advanced" tab. Next, click the "Enable Cache"Checkbox.
Below the cache, you will see "Cache Transfer Method" option. If you are new to this and unfamiliar with how to edit server files, we recommend using the "simpler"Options.
After selecting the caching option, click "update"Button.
Enabling Compression in WP Super Cache
Compression allows WP Super Cache to serve cached files as compressed files, which reduces load times. These files are smaller and can be downloaded faster by browsers.
To enable compression, scroll down to "high level"Settings tab in the "sundry"section, then check the "Compression of pages for faster navigation by visitors"Checkbox.
Click again."update" button to save the changes.
Enabling Dynamic Caching
If one wants to keep certain parts of the web page dynamic during caching, then WP Super Cache provides an option.
Enabling dynamic caching can be useful in certain situations, especially if the page contains content that changes frequently. For example, pages containing advertisements can be speeded up by allowing dynamic caching.
To enable this option, go to "high level"section and click on "Enabling Dynamic Caching"Checkbox.
Save the changes when you are done.
Setting expiration times and garbage collection
WP Super Cache also allows you to set the number of data points from theExpiration time and frequency of server deletion of cached pagesThe
First, simply scroll down to "high level" under the tab "Expiration time and garbage collector" section for configuration.
"Cache Timeout" instructs the plugin to delete the cached page and execute a new cache. The plugin sets this to 1800 seconds by default, which is great for high-traffic sites.
However, if it's a new site and doesn't have a lot of traffic, then 3600 seconds is a good place to start.
In addition to this, schedule time for the plugin to check for stale cache files and delete them.
After completing the selection, you need to click "Change of expiry date" button to save the changes.
Specify the pages you don't want to cache
By default, the plugin caches all pages on the site. This increases the size of the cache file and uses more resources. However, WP Super Cache allows you to select which pages you don't want to cache.
You can scroll down to "high level" in the tabRejected URL string" section to use this feature. In the text box, go ahead and enter the URL string of the page you don't want the plugin to cache.
For example, if an e-commerce site, then it is possible to exclude pages that visitors don't visit often and save server resources. These pages can be checkout pages, account pages, etc.
Don't forget to click the "Save" button when you are done.
Setting up WP Super Cache to work with CDNs
If you are also using a Content Delivery Network (CDN) service to accelerate your website, you can configure WP Super Cache to work with it.
CDNs are geographically distributed networks of servers that help deliver content to visitors quickly.
Tip:We recommend using Cloudflare, which is a free CDN provider and easy to set up.
To set up WP Super Cache to work with CDNs, click the CDN tab. Then, check "Enabling CDN box next to the "Support" option.
Next, you need to enter the "offsite URL". This is the CDN's "pull-down region", the URL where the file is stored on the CDN.
The settings here depend on the CDN service, but here are some tips:
- If Cloudflare is used, this field should be left blank.WP Super Cache will automatically detect and work with Cloudflare.
- If a different CDN service is used, then something similar to the following should be entered:
https://cdn.wpbeginner.comMake sure to replace "wpbeginner.com" with the domain name of your website. Make sure to replace "wpbeginner.com" with the domain name of your website. - If in doubt, you can log in to your CDN service and check your account dashboard settings for Domain, CDN Domain or CDN URL.
If you know that your CDN has multiple URLs, you can enter them in the Other CNAMES field, for example:http://cdn1.361sale.com..http://cdn2.361sale.comThehttp://cdn3.361sale.comOtherwise, this field should be left blank.
You can leave the other settings as default. Finally, check the "Jumpover https URLs to avoid"mixed content"incorrect" checkbox, and then click "save (a file etc) (computing)"Button.
The site is now ready to serve static content from the CDN.
Serving Static Sites with WP Super Cache
Preload Mode in WP Super Cache creates super cached static files for all posts and pages and serves a static website. This way, whenever someone visits the site, the content loads quickly.
Super caching static files helps to conserve server resources, serve older sites that are no longer being updated, and increase site speed by serving only static content.
First, go to the WP Super Cache plugin's "preloaded" tab. Next, you can set the time to refresh the preloaded cache file.
By default, the plugin sets it to 600 minutes, but you can reduce the time if you publish multiple posts per day.
Preloading an entire WordPress site takes some time and consumes a lot of server resources. If you don't want the static files to expire forever unless you manually flush the cache, you can leave it at 0.
After that, check the "preloaded mode(Disable Garbage Collection. Recommended)" checkbox. Preloading can also be enabled for different tags, categories and other taxonomies on the site.
The plugin also provides an option to receive an email alert whenever a file is refreshed. By default, it will use the "No e-mail" setting, but it can be changed by selecting an option from the drop-down menu.
When you are done, continue and save the settings, then click "Preloading the cache immediately"Button.
