Watch out!  If you use WordPress, have shared hosting, and not running a caching program then you are headed for trouble.  Without caching, each time your page loads it uses the SQL database and cpu time on the shared server.  Too many people loading pages at once can lead to slow load times or the dreaded “This blog has temporarily exceeded it’s CPU quota” message.  What to do?

The solution is simple!  Use a caching program to build your page once, and then show that static page over and over.  It only has to generate a new page if the content changes, like when someone makes a comment.  On Turnipofpower.com and all my other blogs I use WP Super Cache.  This plugin is fantastic for lowering load times.   It even shows you at the bottom of the page source how quickly it generated the page.

<!– Dynamic Page Served (once) in 0.684 seconds –> <!– super cache gz –>

WP Widget Cache and WP Super Cache Together!  The new kid on the blog is WP Widget Cache.  Designed to work with super cache, it’s job is to cache the sidebar widgets only.  Since each page normally shows the same sidebar, no reason to generate it over and over using SQL.  I’ve been using Widget Cache for two days now on this blog and have seen the load times go down.  Not so much on the front page, but on all the other pages people land on from the search engine.

Be aware: Caching programs work by modifying your .htaccess file.  You should make a backup of that file before installing Super Cache, then another backup once Super Cache is up and running.  This way if anything goes wrong, you can fix it in a second.  What can go wrong?  Your ISP might reset your .htaccess to a default one from months ago and doesn’t tell you.  Suddenly only your main page loads but no other pages will.  Upload your .htaccess backup, overwriting the existing file and the problem is fixed instantly.