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9:05 am
October 15, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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We are not currently using a caching plugin. Being a non-techie, I'm not sure if we should or not. From what I understand, it essential creates a cache in your visitors browser increasing the loading speed of your website.
So, is that essentially correct? Should we be using a caching plugin? Have any of you had trouble with our speed?
Thanks for your help!
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10:16 am
October 15, 2012
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MoneyBeagle
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I didn't use one, and started using some of the free tools that graded your site or gave you key metric info, one of which is 'First Byte Load Time'. I consistently got rated very poorly across the board without caching.
My first attempt went really bad. I tried installing SuperCache and everything installed and looked great for me, but I instantatly started getting tweets and e-mails that the site was all garbled. My hosting company didn't really have any answers. I de-installed it and sat out in fear for a while.
After a couple of months, I did some more research and found that WP Total Cache is well thought of. I installed and configured that and didn't have any issues. My 'grades' went from mostly D's and F's to mostly A's and B's, and the chart in Google Webmaster tools showed better load time from their persective right around the time I installed this, so if web page speed factors into page rank, I definitely helped myself there.
So in short, yes, I would recommend it.
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10:35 am
October 15, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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Cool. I was going to use Super Cache, but maybe I'll try Total Cache instead.
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11:43 am
October 15, 2012
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retireby40
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Another good thing about the caching plugin is it let you set up CDN pretty easily.
I used W3TC for a while, but it gave me a big problem when I changed from 3 columns to 2.
I'll probably go back at some point.
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2:01 pm
October 15, 2012
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sooverthis
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I am a huge fan of Quick Cache and Super Cache. W3TC causes issues with a lot of themes; I end up swapping it out on a lot of my maintenance clients' sites. But as long as it plays well with your theme and other plugins, it's a contender.
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2:39 am
October 16, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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Awesome! Thanks for the help everybody!!!
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4:07 am
October 16, 2012
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MoneyBeagle
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Club Thrifty said:
Cool. I was going to use Super Cache, but maybe I'll try Total Cache instead.
I wouldn't shy away just on my experience alone. My problems admittedly were likely something I was or wasn't doing
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6:18 am
October 16, 2012
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Glen Craig
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I use W3TC.
Keep in mind that some caching features may not be available depending on your host and what they allow. And that some settings can really wonk out a site. You might have to play around a bit to see what works best for you.
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10:14 am
October 16, 2012
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Objective Wealth
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I use and like W3TC as well, as in a lot of cases now with other plugins I'm seeing their developers give advice on the best settings to use with W3TC to improve compatibility.
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11:41 am
October 16, 2012
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KyleAAA
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Close: the caching plugins create static html files on your own server. Your site then serves up those static pages rather than querying the database and making dynamic php calls every time somebody visits, which is much faster. How a visitor's browser handles caching your site is beyond your control. They all do it a bit differently.
W3TC has never worked for me. I use Super Cache.
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8:50 am
October 17, 2012
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Eric – PersonalProfitability.com
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My host suggests SuperCache on shared servers
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11:40 am
October 19, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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Thanks for the response everybody. Being a techie novice, this is all new stuff to me.
Maybe I should have mentioned this in the beginning. I use Hostgator to host my site. It appears that they recommend W3TC. Has anybody who uses Hostgator had any problems with this?
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12:25 pm
October 19, 2012
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MoneyBeagle
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If your hosting company endorses one in particular chances are they have tested their servers and the configuration, so your best bet in that circumstance is to follow their recommendation.
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2:49 pm
October 19, 2012
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Edward Antrobus
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I have Hostgator and use W3TC on all of my sites. The result is… inconsistent. It usually works like a charm, but when my site breaks, W3 Total Cache is always the culprit. Sometimes it breaks without me changing any settings. Most recently, I had to disable CSS Minification on EdwardAntrobus to get my site to load.
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4:57 am
October 22, 2012
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MoneyBeagle
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Edward Antrobus said:
I have Hostgator and use W3TC on all of my sites. The result is… inconsistent. It usually works like a charm, but when my site breaks, W3 Total Cache is always the culprit. Sometimes it breaks without me changing any settings. Most recently, I had to disable CSS Minification on EdwardAntrobus to get my site to load.
What in particular breaks? I don't believe I've ever had my config work completely correct for long periods with database caching enabled, so I'm probably missing out on a great deal of benefit, though I know it does load much faster regardless.
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11:37 am
October 22, 2012
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Eric – PersonalProfitability.com
| | Portland, OR | |
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I was in a chat with a Hostgator rep and they told me SuperCache was the best for their severs
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6:36 am
October 23, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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Eric – NarrowBridge.net said:
I was in a chat with a Hostgator rep and they told me SuperCache was the best for their severs
Hmmm…odd. On W3TC, it says that Hostgator recommends them.
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6:37 am
October 23, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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OK everybody, I have just started using W3TC. If any of you would be so kind, please let me know if you have any problems with my site. Thanks!
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6:58 am
October 23, 2012
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Glen Craig
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Site looks like it's working fine.
Where I found W3TC to get wonky is when you start playing with the minify settings.
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7:34 pm
November 2, 2012
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Club Thrifty
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| Member | posts 251 |
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Glen Craig – Free From Broke said:
Site looks like it's working fine.
Where I found W3TC to get wonky is when you start playing with the minify settings.
Cool. Thanks Glen. (Sorry it took me so long to respond )
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