How To Speed Up Your WordPress Website

After making a change to my client’s website, I prepared an email and included the link so my client could see the change. Fortunately I checked the link before sending the message because the change did not show up. I re-opened the job thinking I had not pressed the all important “Update” command.

Much to my surprise the change was made, but each time I entered the site URL in Chrome, and Safari, the old information displayed. Flummoxed, I emailed my client’s hosting company to ask if they were having server problems.

Within minutes a response came back saying the issue would go away as soon as I hit “empty all cache” on W3 Total Cache.

W3 what?

W3 Total Cache is a plugin, but (1) I never added this plugin and (2) wondered why it was there in the first place.

What I learned after Googling W3 Total Cache was:

• It speeds up website performance.
• My client’s web host highly recommends it…and uses it.

If your host doesn’t automatically add W3 Total Cache to your site, you can do it yourself. Here’s how: Go to…

1. Dashboard—> Plugins —> Add New
2. Type in W3 Total Cache into the Search Plugins field (see below)
3. Press Enter on your keyboard
4. Before installing it, check to see if your WordPress theme is compatible with W3 Total Cache. If it is,
5. Click Install Now (see below) 
6. Click Activate Plugin

To Access The Settings Page

1. Dashboard —> Performance
2. Click Page Cache 
3. Unless you wish to tinker, you can leave the default settings

Very Basic Use of W3 Total Cache

1. At the top of your dashboard look for the word Performance and click on it to open the drop down menu
2. Click Empty All Caches

Go ahead and speed things up. Your visitors will thank you.