What is a cache?
Websites and services published on the Internet typically use different types of content management systems. It is a software that allows you to handle texts, images, links and other items in a way that does not require you to write a specialist code that is easy to understand by web browsers. Such programs generate the code of the website each time on the basis of predefined rules and materials that have been prepared at the back of the system by its users. This process can be imagined as a jigsaw puzzle making.
Unfortunately, without the support of cache memory, for each single display of the website, the content management system has to put all the elements of the puzzle together and only after its creation send it to the browser. It is not difficult to imagine that such an action is ineffective, because the work that has already been done is unnecessarily carried out. As a result, it takes a long time to load a website, discouraging users, and an overloaded server may eventually refuse to generate a website or expose us to expenses associated with moving to a higher hosting plan.
The solution to this problem is to temporarily store the processed data (arranged puzzles) and if they have not been changed – show them to the world instead of a painstaking process of arranging them for each attempt to display the page. This storage is referred to as cache. In the case of complex structures, we can speak of separate systems. Using the puzzle-laying metaphor, the display of a ready-made page stored in the cache memory can be compared to showing someone a clear picture of the complete puzzle.
Web page optimization using cache memory
Since we have all the content of the website that has already been processed by the content management system, we can immediately send it to the recipient. Thanks to this, the browser will immediately start to draw a web page, without any additional time waiting for the server’s response. The difference in time is greater, the more dynamic elements the page contains (sliders, blogs, event calendars, contact forms, etc.). Cache memory is also of great importance in the case of websites with high traffic – remember that without a cache each user appearing means the need to generate the page anew, which with 100 or 1000 visitors to our service can even prevent its display – the server will be so busy generating identical pages that it will not display any (there will be no resources or browser waiting time for the content).
For economic reasons, many people with their own private websites, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises, use virtual servers or shared hosting. It is nothing else than one server that supports several hundred or several thousand different websites. In practice, such hosting accounts are cheap – in the order of several hundred zlotys per year – but since they divide their resources into many tasks at the same time, their efficiency is very limited. In such a situation, the implementation of service optimization is crucial to ensure good performance regardless of the temporary load on the server and the resources available to it.
Some hosting companies offer server software that has built-in assignment systems that work automatically or semi-automatically. Regardless of the solution used, the best results of optimizing our service will be achieved when we combine the solutions implemented by the hosting with a number of other improvements. However, web optimisation is a very complex issue – the number of tools and technologies available for assimilation and implementation is large. Therefore, it is worth to use one solution, which will allow to implement the most profitable optimizations with the least amount of work.
How do I speed up my WordPress page with LiteSpeed Cache?
If our website is based on WordPress CMS and we use a commercial LiteSpeed server, the recommended solution is to use the actively developed plugin LiteSpeed Cache, which in addition to using the caching system built into the server also allows for advanced source code optimization.
- Possibility of automatic merging of CSS and JS files and serving one file instead of a few (or several);
- Asynchronous loading of CSS and JS resources;
- Enable GZIP compression;
- Save page elements to your browser’s cache;
- Take advantage of the benefits of HTTP/2;
- Automatic compression and optimization of all images stored on our website;
- Lazy loading of images and iframe elements;
- Optimized for Distributed Content Delivery Systems (CDNs).
Thanks to such a rich set of features we are able to resign from complementary extensions (such as Fast Velocity Minify and WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache plus add-ons responsible for image optimization) and use only one, complex.
In addition, the LiteSpeed Cache plugin also offers tools for optimizing the WordPress database. The plugin is also being actively developed and the authors are happy to add new features based on suggestions provided by its users. It is therefore quite likely that in the near future, in addition to the functionality set known from the end of 2017, there will be additional methods of optimisation.
An obvious disadvantage of this solution is the need to have hosting on a server using LiteSpeed technology. Starting with version 2.1 of this plugin, optimization features are available to users regardless of the hosting environment. This means that even if your hosting company does not use the commercial LiteSpeed server, you will be able to use most of the plugin’s features, except for generating static cache. If you cannot use the cache generated by the LiteSpeed Cache plugin, you can install the free WP Super Cache, which will generate static HTML files for your website when LiteSpeed Cache will be responsible for optimization.
Fast and cheap hosting based on LiteSpeed server
Fortunately, the market of hosting solutions is very competitive and finding a good server does not have to be a daunting or expensive task. A budget of 95$ yearly will allow us to invest in a modern, fully scalable hosting account within the dhosting offer. Using the offer of this company you will receive phenomenal support of administrators, free data migration from the current server, LiteSpeed software, the latest versions of PHP, free Let’s Encrypt SSL certificates and easy to use administrator panel with appearance and functionality referring to the most popular content management system in the world – WordPress.
I recommend the offer of dhosting with a clear conscience, because I myself use their solutions for my websites and those of my clients. If you are not sure, you can test your hosting account for free – dhosting gives you 14 days without any obligations.
How do I optimize WordPress?
Although the plugin presented here is a powerful tool aiding the process of optimizing a website based on WordPress CMS, it may not be possible to use it, or the optimization work will go beyond a simple “turn it on and forget it”.
In such a case, it is worth taking advantage of the help of a person experienced in working with the system. If you need help to optimize your website, you would like to rebuild it or migrate to another hosting, please contact us. Together we will analyze the problem and try to find the optimal solution.
