The Importance Of A Fast Performing Website
A fast performing website is important for your business. A slow website is the easiest way to lose a customer.
Not only will your visitors abandon your website if it takes too long to load, but you will also lose search engine rankings. That means you will get fewer visitors and even those visitors will not stick around. This infographic by Convert.com combines data from 12 different case studies showing the impact of reducing load times on conversions and other business metrics.
If you run paid campaigns and your website is slow, you will leave a lot of money on the table, if you make any at all. Google explicitly mentions that page speed and website speed affect Ad Rank, which is Google’s Ad ranking score. If your website is slow, your ad will become less competitive. On top of that, many users who click your ads will also leave your website, costing you money.
Optimizing your website for better performance should be the first thing you do once you start attracting visitors.
In this detailed post, we would tell you how you can improve the load time of your WordPress website so that you can not only improve your conversion rates but also prevent high bounce rates.
Here are some of the sections that we would be covering in detail:
- Understanding Caching and Web Performance
- Caching And It’s Effects On Web Optimization
- Optimal Caching Plugin – W3 Total Cache
- Installing the W3 Total Cache Plugin
- Configuring W3 Total Cache
- General Settings in W3 Total Cache
- Page Cache
- Minify
- Database Cache
- Object Cache
- Browser Cache
- User Agent Groups
- Referrer Groups
- CDN
- Fragment Caching
- Extensions
- Setting Up CloudFlare
- Testing the Results of W3 Total Cache
- Download A Copy Of These Settings
- Final Result
- Conclusion
1 Understanding Caching and Web Performance
A lot happens behind the scenes when you open a website. First, the website name is translated into an IP address. A session is then opened with the server at the IP address. The server at the other end receives the request and proceeds to execute code and fetch information from a database. All this information is then combined and shown on your screen.
We explained the working of a website for a reason. To perform any optimization, one has to understand the components that make the operation happen. Optimizing the components individually and together is what makes performance optimization possible.
The goal of web performance is to reduce the load on the server while maintaining or enhancing user experience.
In our example, we shared many components that make up a web experience. Here are some of the important components.
- The browser on which the website is displayed
- The web server which serves the web-page
- The application which interacts with the web server
- The database server which retrieves the information from the database
- The actual database where the information is stored
- Other assets that are loaded with the web-page (images, JS, CSS, etc.)
To optimize your WordPress website for the best performance, all of these components have to be optimized.
2 Caching And It’s Effects On Web Optimization
One of the easiest ways to improve performance and decrease load times is caching.
To understand caching, you have to go back to the example we gave about website loading. A lot of information on a website is fetched from different places (Application server, database, disk). This includes PHP, HTML, CSS, JS, results from the database queries, and images. Every time a user visits a page, all this information has to be fetched.
Since posts don’t change often, it doesn’t make sense to load all this information from the source every time a user visits a web page. That would cause too much strain on the server.
What if you could fetch all this information beforehand and make a copy? You can then just present the copy of the page to your visitor, thereby eliminating the need to engage the server.
That, in essence, is the concept of caching.
3 Optimal Caching Plugin – W3 Total Cache
WordPress has a lot of caching plugins available. We recommend using the W3 Total Cache plugin because it gives you granular control over the settings. Optimizing those settings gives you more room to improve performance.
The downside is that it’s difficult to make it work if you don’t know what you are doing.
That is the problem we are solving today. We will discuss the optimal settings for W3 Total Cache in this post. We will also discuss what each of the settings accomplishes and whether or not you should enable it.
4 Installing the W3 Total Cache Plugin
Before using the W3 Total Cache plugin, you have to install it.
Installing the plugin is easy. Inside your WordPress admin, navigate to the plugins section.
Once the plugins page opens, click the “Add New” button that appears on the top.
On the next screen, use the search bar to search for the W3 Total Cache plugin. WordPress will search for relevant plugins as soon as you start typing. After the search is complete, you should see the W3 Total Cache Plugin as the first result.
Click “Install Now” to start the plugin installation.
The plugin will start installing, and you will see the rotating icon on the button while the plugin installs. It usually takes just a few seconds to install, after which you should see the activate button.
Click the “Activate” button to enable the W3 Total Cache plugin. You will be redirected to the plugins page where you should see the following message.
If you see the above message, then you successfully installed the W3 Total Cache plugin. Now, let us see how to configure the plugin.
5 Configuring W3 Total Cache
Once you download and install W3 Total Cache, you will see a section added to your WordPress admin window called “Performance.” Clicking the performance tab will open the W3 Total Cache dashboard and reveal the following settings.
6 General Settings in W3 Total Cache
The general section holds the most important settings for all the sections in one place. We will share the settings for the sections individually.
6.1 General Section
Use the checkbox to toggle all caching on or off at once. This setting is rarely used so, leave it unchecked.
The preview mode is helpful if you are trying out new settings and worried about breaking your site. If you enable preview mode, you can test any of the settings to see how it affects your website. Turning preview mode off will revert the settings to the previous settings.
6.2 Page Cache
Page cache is the caching of individual pages on your site. The settings should be as follows.
- Page Cache : Enable
- Page Cache : Disk Enhanced. If you are on a VPS or use multiple servers, you can use other options as well. If unsure, select Disk Enhanced.
6.3 Minify
Minification is the process of combining and compressing CSS and JS files. A single large file has a smaller load on a server compared to several small files.
2 Things To Keep In Mind With Minify
- If you use CloudFlare, then the minification will be taken care of in CloudFlare itself. Keep minify off in W3 Total Cache in that case.
- If you don’t use CloudFlare, then enable Minify in W3 Total Cache at default settings first. Minify is one of the most common reasons why websites break. It is recommended that you turn on preview mode and then test minification. The most common sign of minify problems would be broken layout on your website or Javascript not working as intended.
6.4 Opcode Cache
Opcode cache is used to cache PHP. Parts of WordPress are written in PHP which is regularly executed. Opcode cache can cache these code blocks for a performance boost.
Opcode cache is only available with the pro version of W3 Total Cache. If you have the pro version, then enable both the settings and test performance.
6.5 Database Cache
Database cache caches the results of common database queries to enhance performance.
The recommended settings are:
- Database Cache : Enabled
- Database Cache Method : Disk
If you use a CDN like MaxCDN, KeyCDN, CloudFront, etc., then you should disable the database cache.
6.6 Object Cache
Object Cache caches the results of complex database queries to reduce server load. For example, a simple search on your website performs a full search on your WordPress database. A query like that can be cached for faster results.
Object cache can also slow down websites in some cases. We recommend that you test Object cache first with your website.
6.7 Browser Cache
Browser cache enables caching of your website’s assets in the visitor’s browser.
Recommended Settings
- Browser Cache : Enable
6.8 CDN
CDN (Content Delivery Network) are services that host static assets (images and other files) on multiple servers around the world. The visitor is then served by the CDN thereby reducing the load on your server. The response time for the requests is also reduced since the server closest to the visitor is used to serve the request.
Recommended Settings
- CDN : Enabled if you are using a CDN
- CDN Type : Select the service that you plan to use
6.9 Reverse Proxy
If a large number of visitors visit your site at the same time, your server can get stuck between fetching data and checking new requests.
A reverse proxy helps in this situation. A reverse proxy is an additional server between your visitor and your actual server. When a request is made, the proxy server receives the request instead of your server. The proxy server can then access the cache and serve the visitor. This leaves your actual server free to perform other tasks.
Using a reverse proxy server like Varnish is recommended, but its implementation is not for beginners. We would not recommend you setup Varnish without an experienced person helping you.
6.10 Monitoring
W3 Total Cache integrates with New Relic, a performance monitoring service. You can create a free account and get notified if your application or server performance drops.
6.11 Fragment Cache
Today’s websites have many different sections or fragments. A fragment may be a social element (FaceBook Like Box), an e-commerce element (shopping cart or wishlist), or other elements that are personalized to each user. This presents some challenges as dynamic and personalized elements can’t (or shouldn’t) be cached since the data will be different for each user.
Fragment caching can bridge the gap between no caching and a full page cache. The full support for fragment cache is available only with the pro version of W3 Total Cache. You can enable it if you are using the pro version.
6.12 Licensing
If you use the pro version of W3 Total Cache, your license key goes here.
6.13 Miscellaneous
See the image for our recommended settings.
6.14 Debug
If you are running into issues with one of the caches, enable the respective setting. W3 Total Cache will post logs in the HTML source code which you can use to debug the issue.
Since this will give away a lot of information about your website, turning on this option is not recommended on a live website. Turning one or more options will also slow down your website.
6.15 Import/Export Settings
You can use this section to make a backup of your settings or import new settings for W3 Total Cache. We will also share our sample settings which you can use at the end of the post.
We have covered all the sections of the General section. Now let us move to the detailed sections.
7 Page Cache
As we briefed earlier, Page Cache is the caching of individual pages. Every WordPress page has a header, body, footer, sidebar, and more elements that make up the page. Due to some limitations, not everything on a page can be cached. The detailed options in page caching will help you configure the page cache in W3 Total Cache in an optimal way.
7.1 General Section
Use the settings in the image.
7.2 Aliases
Not useful for most sites. Keep it disabled (default).
7.3 Cache Preload
When you enable cache for the first time, technically, a cache exists for your site, but it’s empty. This type of cache is also called cold cache. Cold cache is troublesome for you and your visitors. If a large number of visitors come to the site at this time, the load on your server will rise significantly as it will try to serve users and refresh the cache at the same time.
Cache preload helps with this by automatically building the cache whether a user is visiting a specific section or not. A cache like that is called warm cache. In simple words, cache preload replaces your cold cache with the warm cache.
7.4 Purge Policy
Purging is a term used for discarding. A cache is only good if it has the same information as your actual database. Otherwise, it’s cold cache.
There are several instances where you would want to purge your cache. When you create or edit posts, you would want your visitors to see an updated page, not an old cached one.
This section helps you define which cache gets purged on post creation, post edit, and comments on posts. We recommend the following settings.
7.5 Advanced
Advanced settings provide granular control over your caching. Setting these up can give your website additional performance benefits. But this reward isn’t without a risk. Just like you can tweak your car engine to give you better performance, you can also wreck it if you don’t know what you are doing. Treat these advanced settings the same way. Our recommended settings are in the image below.
8 Minify
As we mentioned above, if you use a CDN like CloudFlare, then the minification will be handled by CloudFlare.
The developer of W3 Total Cache recommends that you leave minify settings at default values. There is a reason for this recommendation.
Minify can easily wreck your site. There is also no general advice on what settings you can enable as it depends on many variables specific to your website. A working set of settings might work, but a single change in theme or even installing a plugin might break it. Unless you have a professional helping you with this, we recommend leaving these settings at their default values.
If you use CloudFlare, you should turn off minification in the general tab. You can then leave these settings at their default values.
The recommended settings per section are below.
8.1 General
8.2 HTML and XML
8.3 JS (Javascript)
8.4 CSS
8.5 Advanced
9 Database Cache
Refer to the individual sections for their recommended settings.
9.1 General
9.2 Advanced
10 Object Cache
Object Cache deals with the caching of database queries. WordPress has built-in Object Cache support, but it discards the object cache on every page load. That defeats the purpose of caching to a large extent.
With the Object Cache support in W3 Total Cache, you can harness the full power the Object Cache. However, due to technical reasons, some websites can experience the opposite effect when Object Cache is enabled. We recommend that you test your website with Object Cache thoroughly before enabling it permanently.
10.1 Advanced
Again, the default settings are recommended by the plugin developer.
The global group settings in object cache are used for a multisite network. The motive behind it is to use the same cache and use it for other sites in the network. The non-persistent groups add as an exception to the global group.
11 Browser Cache
Just to refresh your memory, browser cache is caching of objects in your visitor’s browser. See the images in the sections below for our recommended settings.
11.1 General
Enable the first six options in the general tab. All these settings define how long the files will remain cached in the visitor’s browser.
11.2 CSS and JS
See the image for our recommended settings.
11.3 HTML and XML
See the image for our recommended settings.
11.4 Media and Other Files
See the image for our recommended settings.
12 User Agent Groups
A user agent is a software that is acting on behalf of a user. From a server’s perspective, the real person accessing the website does not exist.
The server only understands the browser that is sending the request. The server responds to those requests and does not know about the real user.
In this case, the browser is the user agent.
The user agent section in W3 Total Cache helps you create groups of specific user agents and personalize their experience.
For example, you may redirect users who are browsing your website on a Kindle to a specific theme that is optimized for Kindle viewing.
Since this section is not relevant to caching, we won’t discuss it in detail.
13 Referrer Groups
Similar to the user agent groups above, the referrer groups section lets you group and personalize the experience for certain users.
In this case, you can group users based on the referring website that they come from. A referrer may be a search engine, a social network or another website altogether.
Since referral group is also not related to caching, we won’t discuss this further.
14 CDN
The CDN settings will be set only if you use an external CDN to host your files. If you are not, leave the settings on default.
If you do use a CDN, these should be your settings.
14.1 General
In the general section, all the settings should be enabled.
14.2 Configuration
Since configuration will depend on the CDN that you choose, we won’t be able to discuss this further here. You can always contact the CDN customer support, and they will help you set it up.
By default, the settings would look like this.
14.3 Advanced
The default settings are ideal for the advanced CDN settings.
15 Fragment Caching
As mentioned earlier, the pro version of W3 Total Cache can unlock the full power of fragment caching.
Implementing fragment caching is not for beginners. Only use fragment caching if the performance boost is worth a lot in your business.
We recommend that you hire experienced personnel to setup fragment caching for you. This article will serve as a starting guide.
16 Extensions
Just as WordPress is extendible with the addition of extensions or plugins, W3 Total Cache is also extendible by using extensions.
We will share what each extension is used for in brief.
- AMP Extension : Enable if you use AMP on your website
- CloudFlare : Enable if you use CloudFlare. You can configure CloudFlare in detail after activating the plugin
- Google Feedburner : You can leave this extension deactivated
- Fragment Cache : Enable if you use the fragment cache module
- Genesis Framework by StudioPress : Only available if you use the Genesis Framework
- New Relic : Enable if you use the New Relic Service
- Swarmify : Enable if you use the Swarmify SmartVideo solution
- Yoast SEO : Enable if you use the Yoast SEO plugin for WordPress
- WPML : Enable if you use the WPML plugin on your website
17 Setting Up CloudFlare
Since CloudFlare is a popular free CDN provider, we think it’s useful to mention how to setup CloudFlare within W3 Total Cache.
First, activate the CloudFlare plugin and click the settings link to be taken to settings.
Authorize your account with your registered email address and API key. After the authorization, the rest of the settings become available.
Let’s see the different sections and their settings.
17.1 General
The default settings should work well for you here.
17.2 Caching
You should set the cache level to aggressive and leave the rest of the settings at their default values.
17.3 Content Processing
Enable all available settings except Rocket Loader.
Rocket Loader can give you additional performance benefits with the risk of breaking Javascript on your site. We recommend you test it before deciding to use it.
Please note that we are referencing the free version of CloudFlare. Some of the settings can only be changed or enabled in the enterprise plan.
17.4 Image Processing
Enable all the available options.
17.5 Protection
Keep the settings as in the image below. The security level will depend on your website status.
18 Testing the Results of W3 Total Cache
If you followed our instructions, you should have the best configuration for W3 Total Cache installed for your WordPress blog.
But, you might experience a decrease in performance, especially if you have a site with a lot of content.
You might think that is unexpected, but it’s not.
If you remember, we mentioned the concept of cold cache and warm cache earlier. When you setup W3 Total Cache for the first time, your cache is cold cache. As visitors access your site and as W3 Total Cache also works in the background (Cache priming), your cold cache is replaced with a warm cache. Until the time this is completed, you might experience slower load times.
19 Download A Copy Of These Settings
To test these settings quickly, download a copy of the above settings and upload them via the general section. Please note that the settings will be downloaded as a zip file. Unzip the file and you will find a JSON format file inside. You have to upload the JSON file to replicate these settings.
Here are the detailed steps in case you are interested.
Right-click the link from above and click “Save Link As.”
Save the zip file in a separate folder on your computer.
Extract the contents of the zip file in the same folder using a utility of your choice. A free utility for Windows is 7-Zip and for Mac is iZip.
Upon extraction, a JSON format file will be created in the same folder.
Head to the admin section of your website. In the Performance Tab, go to General Settings. Scroll to the bottom to find the Import/Export Settings section.
Press the choose file button, navigate to the JSON file on your computer and click open.
The filename will be displayed in the Choose File section indicating that the file was selected. Press the upload button to upload the file.
The file will start uploading, and the page will refresh when it’s done. Look for the successful import notification to confirm. Also, press the “Empty the static files cache” to empty the current cache and rebuild it with the new settings.
Note that in our settings, Minify is disabled as we recommend that you do it via CloudFlare for better performance. You will also have to enter your sitemap link in the cache priming section as it depends on your website.
Please go through the settings once to make sure that all website specific information is filled in by you.
20 Final Result
Time for the final results. If you follow the above instructions well, you can expect to get similar results like the below:
Note: The above results can vary for your site depending on the different components and coding style followed on your website. You should always go with a reputable hosting provider only. A good hosting platform can play a vital factor in improving the load time of your site.
Still, you can expect a good difference between the load time after implementing the W3 Cache plugin.
21 Conclusion
Caching is the first step to increase your server performance. It doesn’t require you to invest in additional resources, and its performance gains are immense.
W3 Total Cache plugin for WordPress makes it easy to set up a caching system for your blog.
Due to the complexity of web technologies, it’s hard to give general advice that works for everyone. We have done our best to configure W3 Total Cache in a way that would work best for most people.
If you experience any troubles with your website with these settings, let us know in the comments below, and we will help you out in any way we can.
Which one is better between W3 and Wp super cache?. I use Wp super cache and before I have also Autoptimize. But since I used Socially viral Pro I have a problem with images not showing in my single post. After I was unplugged Autoptimize images showing good. I have a new problem with Gtmetrix score before I got A and B score, but after I don\’t use Autoptimize I have only D and E score.
Hi Nella,
Thanks for your comment.
The results would be different for each plugin as it majorly depends on what features they support. Also, a lot depends on your website configuration, coding standards and optimization checks which you have followed.
You can follow the above guide and try if it gives you a better score and loads your website fast.
Do let us know if you face any confusion or doubt while following the above guide. We would be happy to help.
I use also wp super cache. My Gtmetrix score: speed B, yslow B. I didnt try w3 total cache before.
But maybe better score i can find with w3.
I Will try.
Ty.
Hi Team,
This is a nice guide. So far I\’ve been using WP Super Cache as the controls and settings are minimal and basic. But after reading this informative guide regarding setting up W3TC I thought of giving a try with W3TC. Installed it on one of my blogs and configured the settings accordingly as mentioned in the guide and checked the performance. Surprisingly it worked like charm inspite of using several plugins. Thanks for the guide and it will really helpful for many beginners like me.
Hi Ganesh,
Thanks for your comment.
Glad to know that the above guide helped you improve the page speed of your website.
Keep visiting for more such posts.
Great write up no doubt WordPress has been the leading CMS from last decade with more than 50% of the total market share whereas features like Multisite and Woocommerce differentiate it from others. No doubt that W3 Total Cache plugin is one of the best cache plugin for single site I guess now a days users are using multisite network for managing their multiple websites under one window in such case I have read an article relating a comparison between Breeze and W3 Total cache on wpvkp blog which indicate that website using Breeze loads faster than W3 Total Cache. Anyways great up. Thanks for sharing.
https://wpvkp.com/breeze-free-wordpress-cache-plugin
https://www.cloudways.com/en/free-wordpress-cache-plugin-breeze.php
Hi Baldwin,
Thanks for your comment.
It is evident that there are various plugins for caching and improving the page load speed. We considered W3 Cache as it is widely used by the WordPress audience. Apart from the plugin, it largely depends on the website how well it is optimized and properly coded.
Thanks for your suggestion. We would be happy to check out Breeze and see how it performs.
Keep visiting!
Wow . . . this is a great guide about cache-ing.
Currently I am using another plugin, buat I will try W3 Total Chace plugin for comparison.
Hi Anang,
Thanks for your comment and appreciation.
Do share your results with us once implementing the plugin.
I am using genesis Framework. is this work on it..?
Hi Nirmal,
Thanks for your comment.
Yes, you can download this plugin and use it with any WordPress theme.
Keep visiting!
Very great help! I\’m trying to follow this tips for my wordpress sites.
Thank you so much!
Hi Deepika,
Thanks for your comment. Do let us know how the above guide works for you.
Keep visiting for more such informative posts.
Hello good article, but I want to comment something about W3, I understand that this WordPress plugin has the opposite effect for loading the site.
If you analyze what you consume, it is much higher than the advantages you can provide. I usually use fastest cache, a cache plugin that does not have many requests.
Hi Daniel,
Thanks for your comment and suggestion.
We would be happy to check out the mentioned plugin and see how it performs.
Stay tuned!
I have applied on my wordpress blog.
Hi Arnab,
Thanks for your comment.
Let us know how it worked for you!
Hello,
set w3 total cache header may disable and set enable apply http strict transport security policy
Hi,
Thanks for your comment.
Could you please explain more? We would be happy to help you solve your query.
You Should Write Another Article About How To Make Your Website Load Faster Using WP Super Cache Plugin? A Vast number WordPress Site using These Plugin
Hi Ashad,
Thanks for your reply and suggestion.
We would soon be coming up with a detailed guide about the WP Super Cache plugin.
Stay tuned!
Thanks
Will be Waiting For This
Hello team,
I am Satish. My blog is 4 years old with over 250 articles and using FocusBlog theme (by Thrive themes). I tried most of the Cache plugins like WP Super Cache, Auto-optimize, and other plugins.
After configuring each plugin I am observing the Page loading time on Gtmetrix site. I didn\’t get the optimized Score like above-mentioned screen. I followed our instructions with a W3 Total Cache plugin.
Page loading time decreased from 6s to 3s. But the PAGE SPEED SCORE is \’C\’ and YSCORE is also \’C\’. I did most of the basic changes within the theme. But I am not getting the above picture score (Before and After).
Please check my blog score and suggest the changes to get good scores and page loading time.
Thank You
Satish Kumar Ithamsetty
Awesome man! Went from Mobile- 59 Desktop- 70 to 73 and 88 respectively on google page speed after using W3 Total Cache Plugin. On Gtmetrix it shows goes above 90. My loading time has been increased to 4.0 sec from 12 sec on Gtmetrix. It\’s a huge improvement. Thank you very much.
Hi Digember,
Thanks for your comment.
We are happy that the above post helped you bring done the load time of your website.
Keep visiting for more such informative posts.
which theme of mythemeshop I can create this type of blog for the most readability 🙂
https://mythemeshop.com/blog/w3-total-cache-tutorial/
Hi Siengvan,
Thanks for your comment.
You can use the MyBlog or Clean theme for your website if you are looking for a similar design as our blog section.
I deleted the Super Cache plugin, installed W3 Total Cache, and downloaded your recommended settings (easy to do).
I used Google\’s Pagespeed tool before and after. My websites went from around 75 to 88-95 (out of 100)! I was amazed to see the big improvement.
Thank you for a great service!
Hi Tomas,
Thanks for your comment and appreciation.
We are happy to help you.
Keep visiting!
Great tutorial..
I\’ll follow for my web business.
but I have one question, better than w3 total cache or wp-rocket?
Hi Fajar,
Thank you for your comment.
Regarding your question, it totally depends on your website. More than the plugin, it is the way you have optimized your website in terms of coding standards, schema implementations, image size etc. No one could predict which plugin would perform the best until you implement each of them and check the metrics yourself.
Still, you can begin with the W3 Cache plugin and use this guide. Hopefully, it should optimize your current load time.
Do let us know if you face any doubt or issue, we would be happy to help.
Hi Team,
Great post indeed. I\’m using WP Super Cache and It also works Fine. Can you please share a details guide for WP Super Cache Plugin also?
Hi Ellen,
Thanks for your comment and appreciation.
We would be working on that soon.
Stay tuned!
Thank you for great tutorial w3 total cache, i will try to use this setting in my wordpress site.
Hi Syam,
Thanks for your comment.
Do share your page speed with us after implementing the above settings.
Also, let us know if you face any confusion while implementing the settings, we are here to help you.
Hi Team,
I am using both AMP and Cloud flare with W3 catche.I enabled AMP in extension.Do you have any suggesions setting like cloud flare?
or only enabling of AMP extension is enough?
Hi Alok,
Thanks for your comment.
Enabling AMP is enough in your case.
Keep visiting for more such informative posts.
There are better plugins options than the W3 Total Cache. I\’ve done tests and noticed the site faster using the WP Rocket and the Cache Enabler. And are easier to set up if we compared to the W3 Total Cache.
Hi Thiago,
Thanks for your comment.
Well, you may be getting better speed scores while implementing the other plugins. This is mainly because a lot depends on the structure of the specific website which allows the relevant plugin add features and functionalities to it.
Our aim for writing the above post was to help more than a million of W3 Total Cache plugin users who have actively installed the plugin but find it difficult to configure it for the best settings.
Thanks a lot for the amazing Tutorial.
My site is now loading within 2.*** seconds! – Even though on this blog, I\’m using the Genesis Aspire Pro theme.
You helped me, MTS!
Hi Yasar,
Thanks for your comment and appreciation.
Glad to help you.
Keep visiting.
I received an email from you today about it, definitely worth trying
Hi Tasarim,
Do try it and share your results.
Hi again,
I\’m very happy with the W3 settings you have recommended! To further improve my website\’s speed, I have signed up at Cloudflare following your instructions from the tutorial.
However, there is one of your recommended settings that won\’t change; the Browser Cache TTL.
It\’s set at 14400, and when I try to change it to 1382400 I get the following error:
\”Failed to update CloudFlare settings:
Failed to update option browser_cache_ttl: Invalid value for zone setting, browser_cache_ttl\”
What can I do to resolve this?
Hi Tomas,
Thanks for your comment. We would recommend that you contact the Cloudflare support team directly as they would be able to guide you better regarding this.
Wao! thanks MyThemeShop for this definitive guide to setting up w3 total cache. Admittedly, the many settings in w3 total cache can be so overwhelming but with a guide like this, setup becomes a breeze.
Once again thanks for sharing.
Hi Collins,
You are welcome.
Keep visiting for more such informative posts.
You’ve given great detailed information on w3 total cache and YES the slow website cache turn into junk then it slows the website to load.
Appreciate your views.!!!
Hello there,
Glad you liked the article. Feel free to share it across.
Thank you.
Thanks for writing an easily read guide, I truly appreciate your valuable suggestions. I will definitely introduce it to my blog.
Hello,
Thank you for leaving a comment and glad you liked it.
Appreciate your sharing.
Thanks so much for this beautiful post. It really help me alot to fix and solve all problems of my site. Am so grateful to you.
Hello Mike,
Glad you found this guide helpful. Please let us know if you need any assistance. We’re here to help.
Thank you.
Thank you i love mythemeshop themes i am using my sites on mythemeshop themes this is great article for optimization speed my main problem is solve i am same to try and my site speed increase is high thank you
Hello Asim,
Thank you for leaving a comment and glad to hear that MyThemeShop’s themes are helping you with your websites.
Feel free to share this articles around and let us know if you need any assistance.
I had a B and C on GTmatrix. But after installing W3 total cache and configuring it following your settings, my score on Gmatirx came down to D and E. However, you said something about Cold cache and warm cache, so I will give it some time and try again. I Hope it improves
Hello Jude,
That is very unlikely. Were you using any other plugin for the caching before that?
Also, can you please provide with the URL of GTMetrix so we can check further?
Looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
I am using genesis Framework. is this work on it..
Hello Angel
The plugin works smoothly with Genesis framework as well. Let us know if you need any assistance.
Looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Hello.. I’m user genesis framework
I follow this tutorial but is SAME lol 😀
before pagespeed 91, after 91
before Ylow = 75 , after 71 (minus) 🙁
Im not using google pagspeed & cloudflare. maybe result differect if using google pagespeed & cloudlare.
Hello,
Oh, that’s good and bad at the same time. Good because the theme’s already optimized, bad because the YSlow’s score should have improved.
Can you please leave the link to the website so we can check?
Looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Hey Team
That is a great guide. It is totally sharing each setting you guys would have done to speed up your themes loading. I am impressed with the spirit of sharing and caring. My website also loads well. I am fine with an average speed because it does not ruin the functionality of my website.
When I enable everything, some JS stop working. Off Canvas menu and Anchor scrolling totally vanishes.
But, I am glad about my website performance at the moment. I am using your suggested configuration settings for my website and recommend this to my friends as well.
Hello Vashishtha
W3 Total Cache is really powerful and a free caching plugin available at this time. Following this guide should surely help anyone improve their website’s speed along with the user experience.
Let us know if you need any assistance. Appreciate your sharing the post around. Thank you.
Great tutorial. W3 Total Cache is my favorite plugin for optimization. Recently, I am facing slow speed issue on one of my blogs. I will follow your guidance to optimize and improve the page speed.
Thank you,
Hello Manoj
Thank you for your comment, and we are glad you found this helpful.
Do share the results when you implement the guide; we would love to hear them and assist you.
Looking forward to assisting you. Stay tuned for more. Thank you.
I am not sure if you are still monitoring this post, but just in case. I have run into a problem with W3 Total cache and can find very little info on their site or WordPress support. I have my settings as you suggested. I have cloudflare and have them linked. I was going through a support issue and my theme support asked me to load Duplicator to get a good backup for them to use in a test environment. Duplicator checks for cache and found 4mb of cache it was in wp-content/cache/page-enhanced and sure enough all my posts are cached. I had purged all, purged pages, purged in cloudflare and all of those cached files don’t get touched. I even went into settings and turned off cache posts and purged after but it didn’t purge these (I turned it back on after). So I have 4mb of space being used by W3 total cache that I can’t clear. I finally found this one sad little link to the problem https://wordpress.org/support/topic/how-to-completley-flush-cache/
Is this the only way to really clear all cache in W3? or am I missing a setting? There has to be an easier way than to edit functions.php to actually clear all cache. Have you guys run into this? Thoughts?
Hello Heather,
Sorry about the issue you are facing there.
Can you please check with this tutorial?
http://www.kentooz.com/remove-w3-total-cache-manually/
If that didn’t help, please try the functions.php method by using FTP so in case anything messes up, you can revert back:
https://mythemeshop.com/wordpress-101/#https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2XbH-6_nX0
Let us know if you need any further assistance. Looking forward to helping you. Thank you.
Your post is just amazing. even for the beginners, you made it very easy to configure the W3 Total Cache. Really you cleared many of my doubts. Thanks for this post
Hello Prabhu
Glad you found this guide helpful. We tried to be as detailed as possible so the steps are easy to follow.
Let us know if it helped you with the page speed or if we can assist you with anything else.
Nice tutorial. I used this tutorial to make my website to load faster. Setting it up seems to be difficult but I completely follow these steps and I don’t face any problem in setting up.
Hello
We are glad you found this helpful and thank you for your comment
That great to hear! What was your final score?
Please write a detailed article about WP Rocket plugin configuration. As far I know it’s the fastest WP caching plugin.
Hello Alisha
Thank you for your valuable suggestion.
It means a lot to us. We will see what we can do with that.
Good Post I Like This
Hello
Thank you for your comment.
Feel free to share it across.
I was using W3Total cache for years with my shared hosting. There are a lot of options available and while these make W3Tota plugin a great plugin, there are good chances of beginners messing up with the settings.
However, recently I switched to CloudWays and used the default Breeze cache plugin. The plugin is as good as W3Total with fewer settings as everything is already configured for the best performance. I now enjoy under 500 ms load time and it feels great.
Have you guys tried it? Would love to get your opinions as well.
– Shafi
Hello Shafi
Thank you for leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
No, we have not tried CloudWays yet. Thank you for this suggestion, we will see what we can do with that.
Stay tuned for more.
After making the change you have made a good difference in the speed of our site. Before that I used to use another, But now I am very happy with W3 Total Chace plugin.
Hello Hiral
We are glad that the article helped in improving the speed of your website.
Feel free to share the results here.
Let us know if you need any further assistance, we are here to help.
Hey
Amazing article series, it had a noticeable affect on my website.
You truly did a great job explaining this complicated subject.
Thank you
Hello Ruperth
Glad this post helped you in improving your website. Feel free to share the results here.
Thank you for your comment. We appreciate it.
Which one is best, WP Super Cache or W3 Total Cache???
Hello,
The results for both the plugins will depend on what features they support. Additionally, your website configuration and coding will also affect the overall performance of your website.
You can try following this guide and see if it helps give you the desired results.
Let us know if you need any assistance; we are here to help.
No doubt WordPress has been the leading from last decade with more values than others., Nice info, i ll bookmark your site for later use.
thanks.
Hello
Couldn’t agree more!
Thank you for your comment.
Keep visiting for more such posts.
Hello
please reply ، can we share on our website?
Thank you
Maria
Hello Maria
Thank you for your comment.
Sure, you can share this article anywhere but please be sure to link to the source.
wowww… thank you.
Hello Kablan,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
thank for your information.
II just installed W3TC and found the tutorial here.
I try to follow this tutorial and is monitoring the results.
Thank you
Hello Wadiyo,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Do share the results with us; we would love to hear them.
Let us know if you need any assistance, we are here to help.
Result test:
PageSpeed Score
(70%)
YSlow Score
(61%)
Fully Loaded Time
12.8s
Total Page Size
842KB
Requests
72
There is a decrease in performance than before:
PageSpeed Score
(79%)
YSlow Score
(61%)
Fully Loaded Time
9.5s
Total Page Size
863KB
Requests
85
How to improve it? whether to follow gtmetrix suggestions.
Thanks
Hello Wadiyo,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
If you are still facing any issues after following our guide, please share the link of your test or share a screenshot of recommendations from GTMetrix so we can see what’s wrong.
Looking forward to helping you.
Can you please update a tutorial on WP Rocket plugin? Although the plugin is paid, but maybe the faster cache plugin for WordPress.
Hello Desha,
Sure, we would love to check-out the plugin.
If we decide to make a tutorial for the same, we will update you. Thank you for your suggestion.
Thank mythemeshop team, for your response.
this is gtmetrix link result test:
https://gtmetrix.com/
thank
Hello Wadiyo,
Please download the settings we have provided in this article, and import them in your site.
If it doesn’t help, then we are afraid there is some issue with your web server that doesn’t allow W3 Total Cache to work properly. Please get in touch with your web host and ask them about this issue.
Hope this helps.
Let us know, if you need any assistance, we are here to help.
Thank your advise and i’ll try again.
Hello Wadiyo,
Glad we could help.
Hi
please reply ، can we share on our website?
Thank you
Maria
Hello Maria,
Sure, you can share this article anywhere, but please be sure to link to the source.
wow!!! what a detailed article, my site speed increased from 85% to 96% after following this tutorial thanks man
Hello Drake,
Thank you for your comment.
Glad we could help. Good luck with your website.
I was completely unware about WP Cache Optimisation, Some errors came up but Now I survived,thank you
Hello Abhilash,
Thank you for your comment and we are glad we could help.
Do not hesitate to let us know if you need anymore assistance; we are here to help.
Hey i am using w3 cache plugin, when i install and enable a3 lazy load plugin. the images shows white screen.any way to fix it and use lazy load images with w3 plugin?
Hello Ramesh,
Thank you for your comment. Please try disabling the minify option in W3 Total Cache. That should fix the issue.
Let us know if it doesn’t. We will try our best to sort it for you.
Thanks For Your valuable posting, it was very informative.
Hello Rekha,
Glad you liked the article and found this helpful.
Keep visiting for more such informative posts.
great
Hello Pedro,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment.
Hello
Someone know how to fix this messagge that I have after installed an other plugin for cache maybe Lightspeed cache
Page caching via disk: enhanced is currently disabled.
To rebuild the page cache use the empty cache operation
Thank you!
Hello Fabio,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Although we haven’t tested our the CloudFlare SSL, we have heard only good things about it. It is a free and easy way to get an SSL for your website.
Great article written by author and awasum information shared with people. You are doing great job. Keep it up.
Hello,
Thank you for your comment, and we are glad you liked the article.
Feel free to share it across on social media and stay tuned for more.
Thanks for the article, it has helped me a lot, although for the moment WP rocket or faster cache has given me better results.
regards
Hello Fernando,
Thank you for your comment, and we are glad you liked the article.
If both the plugins are working for you, then there is no need to change the plugin.
However, most of the users who have switched to this plugin have got better results.
This is amazing i can’t imagine my site speed right now. God i love this…
Hello Stanley,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
Nice I think you have have not told about the generic cache which is great if you are using cache as a sub-domain.
Hello Gaurav,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
The topic is very complicated for most users. We will include it if we get more feedback asking for such a tutorial.
Very great help! I\’m trying to follow this tips for my wordpress sites.
Thank you so much!
Hello Premdhruv,
Thank you for your comment, and we are glad you liked the post.
Do share the results with us, we would love to hear them.
I think the configuration file is outdated and need to be updated to the latest w3total version. I tried importing the configuration file that you gave here but it could not import, I contacted w3total cache support and they suggested it’s because of an older version.
Hello,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused. We will update the files with the new version.
Hi how can i contact with you guys?
Hello Maria,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
You can always drop an email to us at support-team@mythemeshop.com.
Hello Sir, I must say, can seen your efforts in this article to make it clean & simple. When I am looking for the solution of just an small error i.e. enabling the Database Cache causes error. Also, i have tried many of sites for searching for this error. But You write well on the image that the database enabling only work if you’re not using any CDN. Thank You Sir.
Hello Vijay,
Thank you for your kind words, and we are glad you found this helpful.
Feel free to share it across on social media and stay tuned for more such posts.
Very helpful, just a question. If I enable the minify option, can it break my website? At times, I’ve had issues with minification plugins, they’d mess up the css. Is that a plugin thing or related to the website’s theme? Thanks!
Hello Daniel,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
You have to be very careful with the Minify option. We recommend that you only use it if you are familiar with code and know what you should minify and what you shouldn’t.
Most of the times, minifying only the CSS and HTML works but only use JS minification if you are certain about the changes you are making.
Hope that helps.
Will this work on genesis framework?
Hello Harshwardhan,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Yes, you can download this plugin and use it with any WordPress theme.
Let us know if you have any doubts, we would love to help you.
sir can i use w3 total cache plugin with litespeed web server hosting please tell me.
Hello Rovin,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Yes, absolutely.
However, if you have Litespeed – we would recommend getting Litespeed’s own cache plugin here: https://wordpress.org/plugins/litespeed-cache/
It works much better than any other cache plugin.
I have implement most of these steps and seeing great load times already.
Thanks for the detailed guide.
Hello Karla,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Do let us know how this turned out for you, we would love to hear the results.
I am using genesis framework & genesis cache. Should i need to move to w3 total cache
Hello Rahul,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Using W3 Total Cache Plugin will surely improve the performance of your website. However, if you are satisfied with your website’s loading speed and it is already scoring a 100, then there is absolutely no need of installing on to your website.
Hi, I’m using Autoptimize. Do you recommend adding W3 Total Cache as well and use these together for better performance?
Hello Crystal,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Yes, absolutely. Autoptimize compliments the W3 Total Cache in perfect sense of the word.
Good informatiom bro.
Hello Anurag,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
Dear sir,
My Website is on Litespeed Web server. Can I use W3 Total Cache as main Cache Plugin?
Hello Md Nazmul,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Yes, you can do that. However, we recommend using the LiteSpeed Cache on your WordPress website instead because it is much more suitable for Litespeed servers.
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
Thank You Sir, for your Valuable Reply.
Hello Md Nazmul,
Glad we could help.
I’m regular to blogging and I actually appreciate your content.
w3 Total Cache – Helped me to increase my site speed. Now my site is loading within 5 secs with lot of images and content,
Hello Helen,
Thank you for your comment, and we are glad you found the article helpful.
Feel free to share it across on social media and stay tuned for more such posts.
It’s hard to come by experienced people about this subject, but you seem like you know what you’re talking about! Very Thanks!
Hello Vicky,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Glad you liked the article and found this helpful.
I really like reading through a post that can make people think. Also, many thanks for permitting me to comment!
Hello Yash,
Glad you liked the article. Thank you for leaving a comment.
Hey,
Its a great post. It helped me lot with my website.
Hello Siyaram,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
Finally I have found something which helped me. Many thanks!
Hello Hussain,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Glad we could help and you found this helpful.
This is really helpful content for us. Thanks for sharing it!
Hello Imran,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
Hi admin, I really liked your blog. It is informative.
Hello Anjali,
Thank you for stopping and leaving a comment.
Very thanks for your help, I’m using this plugins already but I read and apply all the options that I don’t know before from this detailed beautiful report in my site.. Thanks again.
Hello Ahmed,
Thank you for leaving a comment. Glad you liked the article.
Feel free to share it across on social media and stay tuned for more such posts.
wow wow! I follow guide for 30 minutes it not wast my time doing this. from 2.79MB to 1.`14MB and 17 Minutes to 6.3 minutes gtmetrix and pingdom are 2.73minutes. Thank Mythemeshop.
Hello John,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Glad this tutorial worked out for you.
Hi W3 Cache team… we are using W3 plugin in all our wordpress website. It helps us to improve website speed… Kudos
Hello Mathews,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
We are glad you like plugin.
Nice post. By reading your blog, i get inspired and this provides some useful information. Thank you for posting this exclusive post for our vision….
Hello Ravi,
Thank you for your comment, and we are glad you found the article helpful.
Best Cache plugin in the Market
Hello Leigh,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.
Hi Very Nice Blog I Have Read Your Post It Is Very Informative And Useful Thanks For Posting And Sharing With Us.
Hello John,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Glad you liked the article and found it helpful.
In this article you mention that if you have cloudflare leave Minify turned off.
I have Cloudflare running from Sitegorund C-panel end… in that case that means that i should not turn on the Minify options?
I have a plugin installed from Siteground called SG Optimizer.
There I have the Minify the HTML Output, Minify JavaScript Files and Minify CSS Files do I have to keep these off as well?
Hello Jose,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
That’s because CloudFlare can take care of the Minification from their end. If you have disabled that feature in CloudFlare, you are free to use any plugin for those purposes.
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
Thank you for your response.
For speed purposes It seems that is better to turn on Minify from cloudflare end than from SG optimizer plugin.
Hello Jose,
Glad we could help.
Sure, if CloudFlare works better for you then use that. However, you don’t get full control with CloudFlare and many people don’t use CloudFlare because of the “Cookie-less domain” error CF is responsible for in many speed tests.
Hope that helps and please do not hesitate to let us know if you need our assistance with anything else.
Good post. I will be dealing with a few of these issues as well.
Hello Madhu,
Thank you for leaving a comment.
Glad you liked the article and found it helpful.
Good to see your post is helping so many people, keep-up goog writing.
Hello Suresh,
Thank you for stopping by and leaving a comment. We appreciate it.