Types of WordPress Caching

In this article, we’ll explore the various types of caching available for WordPress.

What is WordPress caching?

WordPress caching is the optimal method for improving efficiency. If your site receives high traffic, you can enable WordPress caching by installing either W3 Cache or WP Super Cache.

When a website is repeatedly requested by different clients, reusing previously generated data (or queries such as database inquiries) to speed up new requests is referred to as WordPress caching.

Clearing the cache

Clearing the cache essentially means refreshing all previously cached data. This involves deleting old data and creating or regenerating new data. This procedure often takes place based on various protocols, some of which include:

1) When a comment is submitted.

2) When a new post is published.

3) When an old post is updated.

The Advantages of WordPress Caching

The primary benefits of WordPress caching include the following.

1) Accelerating the website.

2) Enhancing search engine rankings.

3) Conserving server resources.

Types of WordPress Caching

There are two main variants of caching protocols available, based on the client-server model. They are:

1) Client-Side caching.

2) Server-Side caching.

Client-Side caching

A website contains various non-textual, static data, such as images, CSS, and JavaScript files. Once these files are downloaded, your browser intelligently avoids redownloading them every time the F5 button is pressed. Instead, it serves the data from the local cache, which is the cached data stored on your computer’s hard disk. It is highly recommended to periodically clear your browser’s cache as it saves a significant amount of space and improves performance. This method of reusing cached data from the client’s computer (or client’s end) is known as client-side caching, and it is implemented by almost every modern website, supported by all browsers. Client-side caching helps prevent data redundancy (i.e., downloading the same data repeatedly) and conserves server resources.

Server-Side Caching

Server-side caching refers to caching on the server. It includes various caching protocols used for WordPress caching. They are listed below:

1) Page caching.

2) Database query caching.

3) Object-based caching.

4) Opcode caching.

Page caching

Page caching is the simplest of all caching protocols. It involves saving dynamically generated HTML files in the server’s hard disk or memory (RAM), known as the cache. These cached files are then served (i.e., reusing previously generated data) whenever a request is made. This eliminates the need for executing PHP code and MySQL database queries, reducing the associated overhead.

Database query caching

Databases consume significant resources and can be considered the backbone of every company. Databases are used for efficient data storage, updates, and retrieval. However, due to their size, each query takes a considerable amount of time (usually in the order of hundreds of microseconds). Since WordPress heavily relies on its database, it frequently makes queries. When data remains unchanged in the database and queries retrieve the same data, it is similar to repeatedly redownloading the same images. Therefore, storing query results in local storage saves time and resources. The process of storing database query results in local storage is known as database caching and is a vital component of WordPress caching.

When the database is updated, such as when a post is published or updated or a comment is submitted, the previously cached database results must be deleted and the database queries recached again.

Object-based caching

WordPress has an internal caching system consisting of several subsystems, including the Caching API, Object Cache, and Transient API. The WordPress core enables plugins to control this caching system to minimize database calls.

Opcode caching

Similar to database caching, opcode caching refers to saving compiled PHP code between each request. PHP is an object-oriented programming language. For PHP code to execute, the PHP compiler must first compile the code and generate executable code for the webserver to run.

Installation

We will use one of the most popular free WordPress caching plugins, WP Super Cache.

Like all plugins, it can be installed using two methods.

The DEUA method – Download, Extract, Upload & Activate

Steps:

1) Download the WP Super Cache plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.

2) Extract the archive.

3) Upload the extracted folder to the wp_content/plugins/ directory via FTP using an FTP client like FileZilla.

4) Go to the Plugins page in your WordPress dashboard and activate the plugin.

While this method is slightly slower, the easier method is to search and install it within WordPress.

Search and Install

In this method, follow the steps below to install the plugin.

1) Navigate to the Plugins > Add New page in the WordPress dashboard.

2) Search for “wp super cache.”

3) Click Install.

4) Click Activate.

5) Done.

This is how you install the WP Super Cache Plugin. Now, we can configure the plugin to achieve caching.

If you need further assistance, please contact our support department.