Use the file cache to boost your WordPress site

Procédure

What is the file cache?

There are countless ways to improve and optimise the performance of a WordPress site. Among the most popular methods, such as using a server cache (NGINX, Varnish Cache), optimising images or even file minification, let's take a look at file caching.

The file cache allows you to massively improve your site's performance by loading a static version of its pages. To load a page, WordPress executes numerous PHP functions and database queries to retrieve the page content and load its various elements. All this slows down page loading time considerably, and WordPress has to start this process again each time a page is requested.

This is where the file cache comes in: once the page has been loaded, it is stored as a static HTML file. When a visitor wants to access this page, the cache displays the contents of the HTML file instead of reloading the page in its entirety, resulting in reduced loading times.

If this isn't clear to you, imagine that the file cache is a camera and the pages are works of art in a museum: each work you see is photographed by the file cache and saved.
If you want to look at the works again at a later date, instead of going back to the museum each time, you can simply look at the photos you've taken.

It's not realistically possible to manually create a working file cache, especially on a CMS like WordPress, so you'll need to download an extension for your site to do this for you. LWS offers you the LWS Optimize extension, specially designed to optimise your site and offering a file cache directly integrated into the extension as well as numerous options to boost the performance of your site.

Using the file cache with LWS Optimize

File caching is enabled by default in LWS Optimize and is a mandatory component in order to take advantage of the majority of the extension's features. If the file cache is inactive, you will no longer have access to the options in the "Front-End" tab and the performance of your site will be reduced. To check that it is activated, go to the LWS Optimize settings and then to the "Caching" tab:

Here, check that the "File Cache" option is active. If it isn't, check the option, which will reload the page and reactivate the extension's functions.

The cache fills up automatically when you or visitors visit pages on your site. You can check the current state of the cache using the 'Cache statistics' section, which shows you how many pages and CSS/JS files have been cached. If the display is not up to date, click on the "Refresh" button to update the data.

Empty the file cache

By default, the file cache is emptied automatically every 3 months. You can change this by choosing a new value in the "Cache lifetime" drop-down menu, if you want the cache to expire earlier, later or never :

If you want to clear the cache immediately without waiting for the cache lifetime to expire, you have the option of performing a manual purge at any time, which will clear the site's entire cache, by clicking on "Clear cache" in the "Manual purge" option.

You can also set up an automatic purge, which will delete the extension's various caches when the site is modified, so that your site dynamically displays the most recent content. You can learn how to activate and configure automatic purging by reading the dedicated documentation.

Conclusion

You now know how to: optimise the performance of your WordPress site thanks to the file cache, activate and configure this option with the LWS Optimize extension, check the state of the cache and proceed with its manual or automatic purge to ensure the most recent content is displayed. 🚀

By applying this knowledge, you have all the keys in hand to improve the user experience on your site and boost its loading speed, which is essential in a digital context where every second counts. 💡

Don't forget that the file cache is like a precious ally, capturing and preserving the essence of your pages for instant display, just as a camera captures the moment to relive it at any moment. 📸

Thank you for reading this article! If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback on using file caching with LWS Optimize, please feel free to share them in the comments. Your feedback is invaluable and will enable the community to benefit from your valuable contributions. See you soon for more web optimisations! 👋