In my earlier post, I showed a way for users to Install and Configure WordPress SEO by Yoast. In this post, i will share with you a way to install and configure w3 Total cache plugin. This plugin has got a spot in highly recommended WordPress plugins.
Speed of the page is an important factor for better reader experience and also from SEO perspective. Since Google emphasis on better user experience hence it is important to make your blogs load quick. In wordpress we have many caching plugins that we can use to make our blog/site loads faster and out of those plugins I personally recommend W3 Total cache.
w3 Total cache plugin Improves the user experience Of your blog by optimising your server performance and aching every aspect of your blog. It reduces the downtime of your site and provides transparent Content delivery network(CDN) integration.
If you have a blog with low traffic, then this would not be a problem. But, let say there is sudden surge In traffic by search engine, or just a general increase in Traffic can cause your wordpress site to use up a lot of CPU resources from the server while trying to fulfill needless duplicate entries again and again.
Duplicate entries here refers to the same request (of a page of your site ) made by multiple visitors.
This plugin caches the first visitor's request of a page in html format on the server, Then when another visitor comes through and request the same page, As long as the page wasn't changed in your administrative section or updated by any mean, the cached page will be served thus page loads faster.
Benefits
Before you install W3 Total Cache, I am pretty much confident that you know How to Install WordPress Plugins Correctly
First deactivate and delete any other caching plugin you may be using(like WP super cache). This is important as you might face issues upon W3 Total cache plugin activation. Installation is similar as of other plugins. Go to Wordpress admin panel>plugins>add new and In the Search box, type in w3 total cache and click on Search Plugins
Click on install and then activate it. that's all it takes to install it. Since you have mastered in wordpress basics and all set to go for PRO tag on your shoulders, you should know different ways to install a plugin on your wordpress site
Read : 3 ways to install plugins on wordpress
Once you have activated w3 Total cache, You will see a new menu under your admin panel called "performance". A click on performance tab will open up the configuration area of the plugin.
Click on performance>General settings in your wordpress admin panel. This is where you will configure the basic settings of this plugin. Make sure you enable every section available under this General settings tab.
User Agent Group Settings are quite simple hence I am leaving this for you guys. you can make your desired changes.
Going good so far. Now the next option is Content Delivery Network(CDN) Setting. W3 total cache plugin supports MaxCDN, NetDNA, Amazon Cloud Front and many more. If you are using CDN or planning to use CDN for your site, then this section is for you. this screen looks like:
How to setup your own CDN
Now you have every section enabled in the general settings. Its time to tweak each section(page cache, minify, database cache, object cache, browser cache and CDN).
Clicking on Page Cache settings will land you on the following screenprint:
Make sure that Page caching via disk(enhanced) is currently enabled. If it's not enabled, then you must be doing something wrong. go back to general settings and Enable it. I have selected don’t cache pages for logged in users such as administrator because if this option is selected then we can see any changes that we make in our site before it goes live. Nest option is Cache home page. Homepage is often the most visited page on most of the sites hence it is a very good idea to check that. Next in the queue is cache feeds: site, categories, tags, comments. thousands of pleople go through your blog contents via categories, tags, feeds and comments hence selection this option is highly recommended. Last option is Cache 404(not found) page and I have checked this too.
404 not found error
There is a help wizard developer has added for your ease. You are required to attach files which you can do by either entering the URL of the file or you can use help wizard which is a very nice feature developer has added for your ease.
Once you have added the files , those files will appear in the minify page
Database Cache Settings
I recommend that you leave then as default unless you know if your site needs an additional modification. Add the pages you never want to be included in the cache thing.
Object Cache Settings : Leave them to default value
Browser cache Settings
Under this section you have to enable Set Expires HEader, Set Entity (etag) for each option leaving Gzip compression and Set W3 Total Cache Headed in their default state.
Read our simple 7 Steps WordPress Guide to Set Up a Blog for complete Beginners
Hope I could understand you how to install and configure W3 total Cache Plugin on your wordpress blog. We will come up with more useful posts, meanwhile, do tell me how you like it?
Don't forget to share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Speed of the page is an important factor for better reader experience and also from SEO perspective. Since Google emphasis on better user experience hence it is important to make your blogs load quick. In wordpress we have many caching plugins that we can use to make our blog/site loads faster and out of those plugins I personally recommend W3 Total cache.
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| W3 Total Cache Plugin to Optimize your WordPress Blog |
#1. What is w3 Total cache plugin?
This is a wordpress performance optimisation plugin. Using this plugin you can easily optimise the speed, performance and the user experience of your blog with caching.w3 Total cache plugin Improves the user experience Of your blog by optimising your server performance and aching every aspect of your blog. It reduces the downtime of your site and provides transparent Content delivery network(CDN) integration.
How does it work?
By default wordpress is a dynamic CMS(content management system). This means that every visitor request that wordpress has to process, it must first connect to database to see if requested page exists.If you have a blog with low traffic, then this would not be a problem. But, let say there is sudden surge In traffic by search engine, or just a general increase in Traffic can cause your wordpress site to use up a lot of CPU resources from the server while trying to fulfill needless duplicate entries again and again.
Duplicate entries here refers to the same request (of a page of your site ) made by multiple visitors.
This plugin caches the first visitor's request of a page in html format on the server, Then when another visitor comes through and request the same page, As long as the page wasn't changed in your administrative section or updated by any mean, the cached page will be served thus page loads faster.
Benefits
- Great improvement in site performance when fully and correctly configured.
- Reduced page load time. Increase Visitors time on site(visitors view more pages)
- Optimised web server performance(sustain high traffic easily)
- Bandwidth saving via minify, CSS, Javascript and other tools.
#2. How to install w3 Total cache plugin
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| How to set up and configure W3 Total Cache Plugin |
First deactivate and delete any other caching plugin you may be using(like WP super cache). This is important as you might face issues upon W3 Total cache plugin activation. Installation is similar as of other plugins. Go to Wordpress admin panel>plugins>add new and In the Search box, type in w3 total cache and click on Search Plugins
Click on install and then activate it. that's all it takes to install it. Since you have mastered in wordpress basics and all set to go for PRO tag on your shoulders, you should know different ways to install a plugin on your wordpress site
Read : 3 ways to install plugins on wordpress
Once you have activated w3 Total cache, You will see a new menu under your admin panel called "performance". A click on performance tab will open up the configuration area of the plugin.
#3. How to configure w3 Total Cache Plugin
It is a powerful and very useful caching plugin. it offers many advanced feature. lets see what are they: |
| W3 Total Cache Plugin : General Settings |
Click on performance>General settings in your wordpress admin panel. This is where you will configure the basic settings of this plugin. Make sure you enable every section available under this General settings tab.
- Page Cache:
- Minify
- Database Cache
- Object Cache
- Browser Cache
User Agent Group Settings are quite simple hence I am leaving this for you guys. you can make your desired changes.
Going good so far. Now the next option is Content Delivery Network(CDN) Setting. W3 total cache plugin supports MaxCDN, NetDNA, Amazon Cloud Front and many more. If you are using CDN or planning to use CDN for your site, then this section is for you. this screen looks like:
How to setup your own CDN
Now you have every section enabled in the general settings. Its time to tweak each section(page cache, minify, database cache, object cache, browser cache and CDN).
Page Cache Settings
Clicking on Page Cache settings will land you on the following screenprint:
Make sure that Page caching via disk(enhanced) is currently enabled. If it's not enabled, then you must be doing something wrong. go back to general settings and Enable it. I have selected don’t cache pages for logged in users such as administrator because if this option is selected then we can see any changes that we make in our site before it goes live. Nest option is Cache home page. Homepage is often the most visited page on most of the sites hence it is a very good idea to check that. Next in the queue is cache feeds: site, categories, tags, comments. thousands of pleople go through your blog contents via categories, tags, feeds and comments hence selection this option is highly recommended. Last option is Cache 404(not found) page and I have checked this too.
404 not found error
Minify Settings
First make sure that it is enabled. There is a help wizard developer has added for your ease. You are required to attach files which you can do by either entering the URL of the file or you can use help wizard which is a very nice feature developer has added for your ease.
Once you have added the files , those files will appear in the minify page
Database Cache Settings
I recommend that you leave then as default unless you know if your site needs an additional modification. Add the pages you never want to be included in the cache thing.
Object Cache Settings : Leave them to default value
Browser cache Settings
Under this section you have to enable Set Expires HEader, Set Entity (etag) for each option leaving Gzip compression and Set W3 Total Cache Headed in their default state.
Read our simple 7 Steps WordPress Guide to Set Up a Blog for complete Beginners
Hope I could understand you how to install and configure W3 total Cache Plugin on your wordpress blog. We will come up with more useful posts, meanwhile, do tell me how you like it?
Don't forget to share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Thanks for the guide!
ReplyDeleteThat was highly informative
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