Why You Need a Cache Plug-in
If you are hosting a blog with limited resources (like most of us!) it’s a good idea to cache your site to make response times faster. This provides a better user experience for your readers.
The first thing you need to understand is how a Web page is displayed to a viewer. The user enters the URL and the browser starts grabbing parts of the page: the header, sidebar, footer, images, text, etc. All these items are pieces of the page that must be loaded to create the page. But if all of this information is already compiled in a cache, the user gets a much faster loading experience. The information comes from one location in the cache in a single group, instead of the server picking up the pieces one at a time and putting them on the page.
I have been using WP Super Cache for more than a year, but a recent upgrade caused some problems for me. Essentially, it broke my blog. Without advanced coding experience or the slightest understanding of the plug-in creator’s explanation for how to fix the problem, I manually uninstalled the plug-in and went on the hunt for another caching option.
It turns out that although WP Super Cache is a top-notch plug-in, it’s a little advanced for the average user (me!). My new solution is called Really Static. I chose this one simply because it has more stars than any other cache plug-in. Really Static has ALOT of options I don’t understand, so when I couldn’t get it working, and the returns of my search were unintelligible, I went hunting again and landed on this baby: W3 Total Cache. It’s up, it’s working, and that’s all I really care about! The options are easier to understand and the plug-in takes care of all that tech-jargon stuff that drivers writers of the English language mad.
If you do not have a cache yet, get one! If you are having problems with the WP Super Cache upgrade or Really Static, consider W3 Total Cache.
