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.
Well, my load time is already like two millionths of a second, but I guess it can be faster.
I have been using WP Super Cache for some time, but never heard of WP Widget Cache. I am going to give a whirl. Thanks for the heads up.
John: I convinced at least one brave man! As long as you don’t use dynamic sidebars it will save some sql overload. If you have things in the sidebar that show the latest comments or what ip a person is logging in from , then it won’t do much.
I use WP Super Cache and I have definitely noticed an improvement in load times. I do have some dynamic data in my sidebar (recent comments), but I will look at WP Widget Cache anyway and see what I can do with it.
I have also been using the WP Super Cache plugin for some time now. It really makes navigating between pages much faster. The Widget Cache is something I have never heard of, but am going to look into. It never hurts to have a fast site with short load times.
One thing I didn’t mention about wp-widget cache. After you activate it, every widget in your blog will now have a new dialogue box when you click on it. This way you can set the cache seperately for every widget. Very Cool!
Heh. I still don’t use widgets. I manually put in the code in the sidebar.php file ;P
Fragile: Good for you, you learn more that way. Today I took a widget and made it into a php file so that I could customize it even further. It was a great learning experience.
thanks for the heads up on this one. I’ve use wp super cache for a while now – but the widget cache looks great.