When a visitor visits a website, the web server receives a series of tasks to perform in order to "build together" the finished website to be delivered to the visitor's browser. It all depends on which images are to be loaded, in which order and size, if it is a product page, the price and stock balance must be retrieved from the database and more.
All this happens while the visitor waits for the page to load.
In order for this whole process to go much faster, cache is used. It works so that when a user has let the web server "build" a specific page, the completed page is saved in a place that can be quickly retrieved by the next visitor. In this way, the next visitor does not have to let the web server "build" the entire page again.
The difference between cache plugin and server cache
To begin with, there is a difference between having a cache plugin in WordPress and letting the server manage cache. If you only use a cache plugin, the web server software still has to handle each request. While if man as we do on ours hosting package lets the web server control the cache, everything happens one step earlier.
A server cache provides a faster website than a cache plugin. However, regular web hosts rarely offer server caching as it is a more complex function, which is not really suitable for shared environments.
Increase the capacity of visitors your WordPress can handle
A good and correctly set cache not only makes your website faster, but it also means that your website will handle many more visitors at the same time. This is because the web server requires less resources to deliver a cached version of the website.
We use Nginx FastCGI
Nginx is a great web server that delivers high capacity and fast websites. But it's not just us who use Nginx, it's also used by companies like Klarna, SVT and H&M to name a few. (Source: builtwith.com)
If you do not have the option to turn on cache at the server level via an admin panel or to log in via SSH and install it, you must contact your hosting company. Not all web hosts offer server caching, but we do on ours hosting package.
Do you have questions about server cache on PALMBERG.io? Contact Us
If you use a cache plugin in WordPress together with server cache, we recommend that you turn off the cache function in the plugin, in order to take advantage of other functions that the plugin has. It can be things like CSS, JS and HTML minification, optimization of images and more.
No, if your visitors are located in Sweden and nearby, you will not earn anything appreciable from using a CDN service.
Either via an admin panel at your hosting provider or you let the cache time expire.
