Cache

[Fred Claus]

If you read my last post about why I couldn't see the fact that my Youtube plugin was actually working, I figured that out I think. My website appears to be doing cache'ing multiple times. I'm told I'm stripping the css/js asset versions, so my users and I will never see changed css, then caching that with wp-super-cache then Dreamhost is caching, then I'm cache'ing through cloudflare.

1. What does "Stripping the Css/js" mean and how am I doing that? Could this be something I did in the security settings of MainWP or my WordFence plugin?
2. How do I stop all the cache's so only one system is cache'ing and I can clear the cache from WP?

I understand what the WP-Super-Cache is. That's a cache'ing plugin that I installed. If I was to get rid of all of it and just use one, I'm thinking this one because I can clear the cache from the WP Dashboard. The others I can't clear as easily.

 

[Nathan Igo]

With wordpress sites there are a few ways stuff is being cached and all depends on the host as well. Some themes, if you used one to start, will have it built in that you can find in their options menu.

Other times it is the host doing it but they usually install a plugin with the initial setup. I am not familiar with Dreamhost but most use a plugin called NGINX helper. Other times it is in a panel within the actually hosting account to flush the cache or disable it completely.

You shouldn't have anything by default going through cloudflare unless you set that up as well. I haven't heard of a host that integrates cloudflare by default for every site and domain.

"Stipping the CSS/js" im guessing is minifying both to remove all spaces to increase speed. Its typically a theme thing but also done by wp-super-cache I would think. It typically only breaks things if you have a lot of custom css and js on pages that is sloppy coding.


The last thing which bites everyone in the ass is when you are making changes to a site in Wordpress and not viewing the pages in an incognito tab. Being logged in while trying to view the page messes everything up when you add in plugins and custom css. My typical design and changes process is chrome logged in for the changes then and incognito chrome tab open to verify along with and in private firefox and edge tab to verify browser compatibility.

 

[Fred Claus]

Thanks for the input. I do have cloudflare turned on for all my sites. Mainly for the CDN aspect and nothing more. Dreamhost does offer cache options and it's turned on automatically, but there is no plugin on the website. It's only a button on the management portal for the account. I'm wondering since my sites are mainly for local clients, do I even need cloudflare? I'm told the CDN is so that the site loads from a server closer to the end user so it loads faster. If people outside my local area are not really going to be looking at my site, does it even matter? Does Cloudflare do anything to boost my performance rating? I know one of the tests I ran said something about running my pictures through a CDN.

Thoughts?

 

[Nathan Igo]

I don't know if it is right or not but I typically try to run caching on only 1 platform. In your case I would turn off Dreamhost and use Cloudflare for the caching. They are typically faster than most hosts until you get into premium plans.

 

[Fred Claus]

Doing that. Turning off Dreamhost, and removing Supercache and just using cloudflare.