Speed Up Your Site
One simple way to speed up your page loading time is to use a caching plugin.
But too many plugins slow the site down, so adding yet another one won't help. Will it?
It will. WordPress works well but as soon as you add extras, like plugins it can start to slow down. Some plugins delay page loading times a lot more than others. So it isn't necessarily a matter of the number of plugins you have which leads to slower page loading times.
What is caching?
Caching is a mysterious & magical way to speed up your site's page loading times without having to remove any of the plugins you love.
When someone clicks on your site and reads a page, their browser goes and gets lots of info from the web host. To make a full webpage, images, files from plugins, CSS, javascript and content from your Wordpress database all has to be fetched and then put together in the browser window. This takes time.
In the old days, people used static websites. You made a page of HTML and that was it. No databases were involved. The page stayed the same.
But Wordpress creates dynamic pages. Every time someone visits your site, Wordpress has to pull all the bits and pieces together and send the lot to the browser the viewer is using. Even if the content on the page hasn't changed at all since you wrote it, every time someone visits the page Wordpress will go and get all the files and code.
The solution
It would be a lot quicker if, instead of having to put all the pieces together, there was just a copy of a complete page, basically a ready made static page, that could be immediately sent to the browser.
That is what a caching plugin does. It creates static versions of your webpages and then shows them to visitors, to save Wordpress from having to go and get all the bits and pieces each time someone looks at the site.
How does it work?
With a caching plugin installed, the first time someone looks at a page on your site Wordpress will still go and get all the bits and pieces. But then a static copy of that page is created by the plugin.
So, from then on, when someone visits that same page, they see the static page generated by the plugin. This is already to go. No need for bits and pieces to be fetched
Which caching plugin to use?
I've used a few caching plugins. WP Super Cache is the most popular. But i always had problems with it. No idea why. Just didn't seem to like the other plugins I used or the theme. I just remember having a couple of issues and the only way to fix them was if I deactivated this plugin, then re-installed it. And that got tedious after a while.
Likewise W3TC - also popular. That worked OK at first but then i had an issue with it using up a lot of resources from the server for some reason. So I removed it. Or I tried to remove it but it's not simply a matter of clicking 'Uninstall'. It ends up leaving a lot of files lying around which can interfere with other plugins.
So now I use Quick Cache and have never had a problem with it. It's also idiot proof, which is a bonus.
Recent Comments
57
Hi. Thanks for posting this. I don't have any probs so far but I do know from past experience that it can be a wee bit frustrating having to wait and of course if your page/post takes any length of time to load then your visitor simply goes somewhere else which of course could result in a sale/commission/referal etc
Have a nice day.
Robert
Good stuff, this is a keeper, thanks.
Know what they say about "Idiot Proof"?
Make it Idiot Proof and somebody will make a better idiot. ;^)
I love the "idiot proof" feature of the recommended suggestion. That always comes in highly helpful.
From what I read above, it seems that on first viewing the page would still load slow, but then all readings afterwards would get the quicker copy page. Did I misread this?
If that is the case, is there still a risk that many first time visitors would get annoyed at the slow load up time and the product wouldn't help as much as you wanted it to?
Are there any other solutions you have come across so far that have helped speed up loading time?
Thanks for the post. I used to use both WP Super Cache and W3 Total Cache also. Didn't have any problems with them as such.
Haven't added any of these to my latest website yet. Will consider this Quick Cache when I do.
One question: Does the plugin display everything about a post and page as the static page or will the content still be displayed as new. i.e. if someone was to visit a page or post on my site and then I updated that post or page with new info and then when they returned would they see the updated content or would it just be exactly as they saw it on their previous visit?
The caching plugin automatically detects any updates in posts. So if you edit something then the cached version will be updated.
OK then this is something for me, have many photos and can expect it can become slow. Need some speed up tool.
I've been using Quick Cache for a few months and it works very well. WP Super Cache and W3TC conflicted with my theme and other plugins. Many people use these 2 plugins because they are popular and high rating. If set up incorrectly, these 2 plugins can break the site and cause internal links errors. The other effective ways to speed up WordPress site are to add expire headers, leverage browser caching and compress all files.
This is great info! I have been having some issues with the speed of my site. I'll give this a try. Thanks.
I agree I also had problems with the first two and now you Quick Cache no problems with that and it has sped up the site.
Thanks for you time preparing and advising us much appreciated.
Take care be well
Andre
Weird isn't it? The most popular caching plugins aren't those that work seamlessly. I think popularity is down to how much media attention a plugin gets.
See more comments
Another useful tip from you Ian, thank you, I'll give quick cache a try, especially as you say its idiot proof! :)