W3 Total Cache is a WordPress caching plugin that functions to improve website performance and optimization. This plugin works as a temporary storage system that can significantly increase website loading speed by minimizing the number of resource requests that must be processed by the server.
By using this plugin, website page loading times can be reduced drastically, so visitors don't have to wait long to access the desired content.
According to data from Google, when page load time increases from one to three seconds, the bounce rate increases by 32%, indicating that visitors are more likely to leave a website if the loading speed is slow.
Therefore, optimizing website performance using plugins such as W3 Total Cache is very important to minimize the occurrence of high bounce rates.
What is W3 Total Cache?
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| What is W3 Total Cache? |
W3 Total Cache is a WordPress plugin that functions to optimize website performance through caching techniques. With this technique, this plugin helps increase website loading speed by minimizing the number of resource requests that must be processed by the server.
This plugin was first created by Frederick Townes, CTO and Senior Technical Advisor of Mashable. Then maintained and supported by Frederick's agency, W3 Edge. To date, W3 Total Cache has been used by 1,049,955 active websites.
This data shows that this plugin is very popular and widely used by WordPress website developers throughout the world, including 6,074 websites in Indonesia and makes it one of the most widely used plugins in the WordPress Plugin Directory.
The cache plugin has 16 pages of configuration options, so users can determine what caching solution they need and set this plugin according to their needs.
W3TC optimizes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript resources by minifying, combining, and compressing them. Additionally, W3TC also creates and stores static website resources to reduce load on servers and speed up website delivery. This is what can ultimately help websites speed up web page loading.
What are W3 Total Cache feature?
The W3 Total Cache plugin offers various main features that can help you optimize website performance in terms of caching, including the following.
1. Caching
The W3 Total Cache plugin creates a copy of static HTML that is stored on the server. When a visitor first accesses a page, WordPress has to build the page dynamically from the database etc., this requires a lot of server resources.
However, for subsequent visitors accessing the same page, the plugin will send a copy of the pre-generated HTML. This is faster than building dynamic pages from scratch. This will reduce server load and speed up page loading times.
2. Minification
W3 Total Cache can minimize the size of CSS, JavaScript, and HTML files by removing unnecessary characters, such as spaces, comments, and unnecessary punctuation.
This process is known as minification, which reduces the size of files so they can be transferred more quickly from the server to the visitor's browser. The smaller the file size, the faster the website page loading time.
3. Integration with Content Delivery Network (CDN)
Content Delivery Network (CDN) services store copies of website files on various servers throughout the world. By integrating W3 Total Cache with a CDN, website files can be sent from the server closest to the visitor's location, reducing distance and latency in sending data.
Integration with a CDN really helps increase website access speed for visitors from different geographical locations.
4. Database Caching
Every time a web page loads, WordPress needs to query the database to retrieve the required content. W3 Total Cache provides the option to cache database query results, so that the same query does not need to be run again for subsequent requests.
This can reduce the load on the database server and speed up page loading times, because data can be fetched directly from the cache in the web server's memory.
How do I install W3 total cache manually?
Now you understand what W3 Total Cache is and the features it offers. Before proceeding with the installation process, make sure that the memcache options are enabled on your PHP version. This is necessary so that after the installation is complete, you can immediately use the W3 Total Cache plugin optimally.
Following are the steps for installing W3 Total Cache on WordPress.
1. WordPress Login
First, log in to the WordPress dashboard where you will install the W3 Total Cache plugin. Enter your WordPress account username and password.
2. Add W3 Total Cache Plugin
After successfully logging in, then add the W3 Total Cache plugin to your WordPress by selecting Plugins > Add new.
3. Install the W3 Total Cache Plugin
After that, in the following screen, search for the W3 Total Cache plugin. If so, click the Install Now button.
After installation, then click Activate to start activating the plugin.
4. Activate the Cache Feature
After successful installation of W3 Total Cache, you will find the Performance menu in the left sidebar. This plugin offers various caching features, but the three main features that need to be activated are Database Cache, Object Cache, and Page Cache.
Here are the steps to activate it.
- Click the Performance menu, then select General Settings.
- Look for the Page Cache section and check the Enable option.
- In Page Cache Method, select Memcached.
- Once finished, click the “Save all settings” button.
After that, scroll down until you find the Object Cache and Database Cache sections, then change the settings as in Page Cache by selecting Memcached as the caching method.
Memcached is a caching system that can speed up page loading times by storing a copy of the page in memory.
5. Manage cache database
One of the main features of W3 Total Cache is its ability to lighten the load on the database through caching techniques. By using Database Cache, you can improve website performance significantly. Here are the steps to optimize it.
- Click the Performance menu, then select the Database Cache sub-menu.
- In the Memcached hostname:port/IP:port: section, enter the URL or IP address along with the port number used to run the Memcached service on your server.
- Click the Test button to verify the connection between W3 Total Cache and Memcached.
- If the Test Passed message appears in green, it means that the Cache Database has successfully connected to Memcached.
- Click the Save all settings button so that the settings are saved.
By integrating Database Cache with Memcached, W3 Total Cache will store database query results in the system cache. When a visitor accesses a page that requires data from the database, the plugin will retrieve the data from the cache first rather than querying the database directly.
6. Manage page cache and W3 Total Cache
Next, you also need to activate the page cache feature using the following steps:
- Click the Performance menu > Page Cache
- In the Memcached hostname:port /IP:port section, enter the URL that was displayed when you ran Memcached previously.
- Click the Test button to verify the connection.
- If the Test Passed message appears in green, that means Page Cache has been successfully activated.
- Click the Save all settings button so that the settings are saved.
7. Manage object cache
The object cache functions to store object data such as database query results in temporary memory so that it can be accessed more quickly on subsequent requests. This can improve website performance by reducing the load on the database server. Here are the steps.
- Click the Performance menu > Object Cache.
- In the Memcached hostname:port /IP:port section, enter the URL that was displayed when you ran Memcached previously. This URL is the same as the one used to enable Page Cache.
- Click the Test button to verify the connection.
- If the Test Passed message appears in green, that means Object Cache has been successfully activated.
8. Memcached checking
Finally, you need to check whether the memcached feature is running or not with the following steps.
- Open your WordPress site.
- Right click on the page, then select the View Page Source option.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page source.
- You will see information as in the accompanying image.
If you see this information in the page source, it indicates that the W3 Total Cache plugin integrated with Memcached has been successfully installed and is working on your site. This information indicates that the page has been stored in the Memcached cache, resulting in faster page load times.
Conclusion
W3 Total Cache is a popular caching plugin for WordPress that helps improve performance and optimize websites. This plugin uses caching techniques by requesting resources to the server, such as making static HTML copies, minifying CSS/JS files, integrating CDN, and storing database query results in cache so they can be accessed more quickly.
To support the optimization of your website, plugins alone are not enough, you also need to use quality hosting that also supports optimization through caching.