How to Use the LiteSpeed Cache Plugin on WordPress

Why am I not seeing my changes after updating my website?

If you have just made an update but are not seeing it on your site, it’s likely that the cache is displaying an old version of your content. You can fix this by purging cache.

What is Caching and Why Do I Need it?

When it comes to Website acceleration, caching is a way to speed up your website’s load time by saving what a web page looks like inside very fast memory, and showing that saved version instead of making potentially millions of computations to render that page dynamically through a scripting language such as PHP.

In practical terms, effective caching will help your website load up to 100 times faster when there is little traffic on it, and will help your website handle more simultaneous visitors (often a LOT more) without slowing down or crashing. So yes, you need it. Everyone needs it!
Speed is a major factor for the success of your website: LiteSpeed Cache lets your WordPress site run at a constant sprint.

LiteSpeed Cache (LSCache) is an all-in-one acceleration solution for WordPress websites that can manage your cache and optimize performance. It is enabled by default on all Managed WordPress Hosting plans, and pre-configured to work correctly on the majority of WordPress websites.

Here are the basics on Cache Purging, Database Optimization and Image optimization with the LSCache WordPress plugin. While you don’t need to change any of its settings, it may be useful to familiarize yourself with some of them, especially if you are a power user.

Purge cache

If left alone the cache files will update themselves after a set time span (also known as the Time-to-Live or TTL), but there are situations (such as when adding a new element or changing the price of an item) where you will want to purge the cache manually so that your updated content is visible right away.

Here is how to manually empty your cache.
  1. When in your WordPress dashboard scroll down and click LiteSpeed Cache.
  2. It will open the manage page where you will see all of your cache purging (deleting) options.
  3. There are several options:
    • Ranging from the front (home) page to a complete purging of all cache, simply click on the appropriate tile. If unsure, click Purge All.
    • You can choose by Category, Post ID, Tag or URL to target a specific group or webpage. Enter the relevant information in the field and click Purge List.
It’s safe: Purging cache will only remove pre-existing files, then update them. You will not lose any information on your site, so feel free to choose purge all as a default tactic. However, this may take some time depending on the size of your site. If you know the specific page, copy and paste it into the URL section for faster results.

Database Optimization

You can optimize your WordPress database to ensure it’s as compact and fast as possible with this plugin. Here is how.
  1. When in your WordPress dashboard scroll down and click on LiteSpeed Cache.
  2. At the top of the purge page click the DB Optimizer tab.
  3. To clean your database select clean all. It will indicate that a cleaning is needed by displaying a red number and a red ‘x’.
  4. Once the cleaning has finished, there may be a need to optimize the database tables. This happens as cleaning can remove unnecessary table elements and leaving ‘gaps’ in the information. Click Optimize Tables to perform the action.
Some files are continually updated, such as transient files. If after cleaning the database there are still some boxes that are in red, it is often nothing to worry about. It usually only means that certain files are updated at such a rapid pace, that they cannot be removed from the database.

Image Optimization

Adding a picture to WordPress is a simple procedure, but not every image you add is optimized for the page.

This tool analyses the images of your website and readjusts them to be the optimal size so that they require the least amount of data.

To put it another way: optimized images = faster load time.
  1. When in your WordPress dashboard scroll down to click on LiteSpeed Cache, then click image optimization.
  2. Click the button Send Optimization Request
  3. You will be able to see the percentage of optimized images in the right-hand pane where you will also find a summary of the optimization.
The first time you send the request for optimization, the system will only perform a small practice run. After the initial request, send a second request for the system to fully optimize the images of your website.
For a more in-depth look into image optimization and its functions click on Learn more link on the page.

With these features, you will be able to keep your website lean and fast!
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