LiteSpeed Cache plugin for WordPress page speed optimization works by storing a copy of the website content for future requests.
The functioning is similar to storing the cache of the most commonly viewed pages on the content delivery servers.
But content delivery is too vast and involves the storage of the content on multiple servers across the world, so that the pages are available closest to the user.
As a result of using the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress, the server has to process fewer requests and the speed of loading the website becomes faster.
Now that we have downloaded and installed the LiteSpeed cache for WordPress website, what would the next steps be?
The LiteSpeed cache for WordPress page speed optimization has two purposes – one would be to cache the full page for the site’s pages that are dynamically generated and the second being the site-optimization plugin.
Once installed, we notice that most of the points are inactive. We need to then activate those settings.
To turn these settings on we need to go to LiteSpeed Cache > Cache and then set the Enable Cache setting to ‘ON’.
What More Does the Plugin Offer?
In the LiteSpeed Cache plugin for website speed optimization, after turning ‘ON’ the Enable Cache setting, we observe that the plugin would cache the site nicely. Let’s look at additional tabs within the plugin.
Let us focus on the LiteSpeed cache for WordPress settings like Cache, TTL, Purge and Excludes and look at them a bit more in the purpose:
1. Cache
In the LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress page, this turns the caching functionality ON and OFF. The other settings will let us decide the types of content that will be cached.
When we begin all LiteSpeed settings are enabled. In case we are not sure of the settings, it is best to leave it at the defaults. This should not be connected to the cache that your hosting would have.
2. TTL (Time To Live)
TTL simply stands for ‘Time To Live’. This refers to the number of seconds a page can remain in cache before it is considered to be stale.
In the LiteSpeed Cache, after the page reaches the TTL value set, the cache is purged.
There is a default value set, which is best to leave it in case we are not sure of what needs to be set. But in case we have some pages that are the most visited, it is best to set the TTL value.
The back drop would also mean that if there are errors on the page, the LiteSpeed cache will also store the bad pages, which can affect business in case of any e-commerce web page, or affect the overall site’s reputation.
3. Purge
There are situations where the pages are purged before their natural expiration. The reasons could be some incorrectly put prices on the page, incorrect deployments, ill functioning web servers that carry some bad content across.
We would not want the world to see that.
The LiteSpeed Cache for page speed optimization, helps with that too.
Consider an example where the prices of the e commerce artefacts are updated on the page, while the LiteSpeed cache shows the old prices.
This ends up in a loss, or affect the site reputation because the calculations would be affected after checkout, where the actual prices would differ from the one seen on the cached page.
In such situations it is always advisable to purge the cache, so that the new pages are cached with updated content, after every new site update, or deployments done. The LiteSpeed Cache Plugin allows for this feature
4. Excludes
There would be some pages on our website that we would not want to be cached. Again let us look at an e commerce site where the home page would not have much changed content.
But the product page will have changed content in terms of product images and prices.
The ‘Excludes’ tab will allow us to exclude specific parts and pages of your site from being cached. For most sites, there will not be a need to change these settings.
This tab provide to give us control on custom exception to the cache rules. The LiteSpeed Cache Plugin allows this feature.
5. ESI
Edge Side Includes (ESI) is a method using which we can punch holes in public content, and fill them with private or un-cached content.
Useful for things like shopping cart widgets and personalized greetings in LiteSpeed Cache.
6. Object
These settings allow us to control an external object cache – similar to LiteSpeed cache for WordPress page. For this to work, the server administrator needs to have this previously enabled and configured.
7. Browser
This is a client level cache setting for static files. When this setting is enabled, static files, like images, are stored locally on the user’s device for the first time they are requested.
After the first request, the content is pulled up from the local storage till the browser cache expires. LiteSpeed Cache Settings on this tab control the browser cache.
8. WooCommerce
The LiteSpeed cache is compatible with WooCommerce, and can be used to cache specific content related. There are many more settings in the LiteSpeed Cache plugin.
Let us look at some of the ones that are important from the Search Engine Optimization perspective to get more hits to the site as well as rank the specific pages up.
9. Page Optimization
For experts in the field, there are settings related to CSS and JavaScript minification and combination. HTTP Push, asynchronous and LiteSpeed Cache settings for the experienced.
10. Image Optimization
The LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress page speed optimization provides the ability to optimize the images, re-sizing them and making it faster to transmit. This is done via the cloud service.
There are also tools to optimize the database. Which is useful when it comes to speeding up the website. It is often referred to as LiteSpeed Cache for WordPress DB Optimizer.
11. Toolbox
Provides settings to manually purge, site settings or debug issues with the WordPress page speed optimization.
Now we can sit back, relax and see the page load faster, giving a much better experience to the end users and thereby more visitors.
The optimization features like LiteSpeed Cache are added help to the user experience by bringing the right users to the pages that they are looking out for.
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